Council Tax - some help please

the_brownies

We live in a rural area and have 5 other properties near us which show up on the search for neighbours banding website. All of us have very comparable houses, but all are on a different band.

Ours is the only property that has been sold since 1993 and is now 2 bands higher than the highest of the rest.

My question is, does the new band that is set when a property is sold binding, or could we have a case for claiming. I have read the guide but cannot seem to find an answer to this.

Many thanks for any help that can be given.

Liz

lincroft1710

Council Tax law allows an incorrect band to be amended at any time. Which means that if your band is found to be too high it can be reduced, but equally your neighbours' bands can be increased if they are found to be too low.

the_brownies

Thanks for that info.

I'm still not clear on a few things.

When we bought the place 10 years ago, the banding was increased to E. What would this have been based on? The selling price? Is it right the we should have to pay a higher banding just because our house was sold when the others around us are on Band A because they haven't been sold since the 1993.

Therefore I'm guessing that we would not get any refund and our neighbours would go up if we 'rocked the boat'

lincroft1710

It sounds like the previous owners had alterations carried out which weren't reflected in the then CT band. Your purchase would trigger a band review which is what seems to have happened. The neighbours' A bands do seem low, unless they are all belong to a farm and are occupied by farmworkers such as stockmen, shepherds, pigmen etc.

the_brownies

Yes they are farmers and have done loads of alternations but are still on A presumably because noone knows about them. The 5 properties near us are on A x2,B,C,D,and us on E. All of them have had alterations done.
Our previous owners were only here for 8 months and did not do any alterations. An extension was put onto our house over 20 years ago which would have put up the banding then.

What is the banding based on - value?, number of rooms?, size of rooms, outbuildings? replacement windows? or just improvemets since 1993?
Sorry to bombard with so many questions, I'm trying to get my head arouns all of this.

lincroft1710

If the other houses are still in the same ownership and the alterations are after 1 Apr 1993, the bands cannot be increased on account of the alterations.

Council Tax is based on what a property would have sold for as at 1 Apr 1991, so everything that would affect the sale price is taken into account.