council tax rebanding question

bs0u0128

i am going to be buying a house that is currently in band e, however its 1991 price states it should be, according to the councils own list, in band d

now it has a conservatory and a garage changed into a family room, will this mean the band is right? even though the majority of houses in the same road are also band d?

Chilledjim

Hi there, sounds as though since 1991 the house has been extended and it has reached/exceeded the threashold for the next council tax band.

If a house has a material change, such as an extension, it is revalued and if it is moved into the next band a mark is shall we say put against it. This means in your case the house was extended, so the value (at 1991 levels) took it to the next band. It stayed in band D until the next time the house changed ownership then the band automatically changed to an E.

Took this from http://www.voa.gov.uk/council_tax/cti_home.htm

When a property is improved (e.g. an extension is built), legislation prevents the VOA from increasing the band code of that property until there is a “relevant transaction” or a general Council Tax Revaluation. The “relevant transaction” can be a change of ownership (including a right to buy purchase), or the granting of a lease for a term of seven years or more.

You can look at the above site and check out bandings for properties, by some of the band letters there will be an indicator (the mark) which shows there has been this material change and the band may change as per the script above.

As an extra point if the material change reduces the value (sounds like my DIY) and takes it into a lower band the banding will change immediately.

Hope this helps and makes sense

Jim