Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

pmd99365

Hi all. I have searched (here, and the internet in general), so apologies if this has been addressed already.

I have successfully had my house re-banded from E to D. I have been paying CT as band E for five years. Do the council just automatically refund the over payments or do I have to request it from them?

Thanks

lincroft1710

pmd99365 said:

Hi all. I have searched (here, and the internet in general), so apologies if this has been addressed already.

I have successfully had my house re-banded from E to D. I have been paying CT as band E for five years. Do the council just automatically refund the over payments or do I have to request it from them?

Thanks

The council should automatically refund. However as the 2022/23 CT year starts in 10 days time some councils deduct the refund from the the coming year's CT bill.

sorrel340

(note I can't post links, so I have described the sites I used below in italics)

As these pages helped me get my house re-banded (from a G to an F) I wanted to share what I can in case it may help others.

I moved house in the Autumn of 2021, so was in time for the 6-month “making a proposal” limit. I had done this once before, back in the late 1990s, when I got the flat I was living in moved from a C to a B.

 In 2021 I failed the neighbour check as there were six identical houses, all also at Band G, but I thought it was worth making the attempt as the valuation calculators suggested the house was very much in the wrong band. 

The place I was in was a late 1990s estate, with a set of houses rated F and a set rated G. I thought the valuation back in the 1990s was wrong and that every single house was in too high a band (it should have been E and F rather than F and G), but I could only make the proposal for my house.

I read a lot from the VOA tribunal hearings (see: the valuation tribunal website) and noted what they seemed to care about. This was mostly size of the house (measured externally) and certainly not size of garden or other details. Comparison houses also needed to be within a mile and a half or so at most.

To find comparison properties (as the ones on my estate were no good and implied that the banding shouldn’t change) I used the home.co.uk website which is a very useful site to see what sold when in date order across a geographical area.

This enabled me to build up a list of houses also sold at the same time as when my house was recorded as sold (both in the past, and last year) so I could find comparison properties. Then I cross-referenced these against the bands from 

From the above I had a list of houses that sold at the same time as mine had at a similar price but were in a lower Council Tax band (there were a lot). Then I used sites like Zoopla’s house price history site to find out estate agent information about those sales and get to house size information and features.

From this I could put together a set of comparison data, looking at the valuation features (size, layout, character, location) and house price sales from the mid 1990s onwards to demonstrate that my property was incorrectly banded in comparison to specific other houses of the same size, age, character and position.

As it was the same as other properties on the immediate area, I also brought up differences in the local position and covenants (we have a covenant about water-company access to a part of the area that other houses probably do not).

I did quite a large document for the proposal as I thought it better to do it now rather than hold things back for any potential tribunal. 

The letter explaining the proposal had been accepted - changing the value since the late 1990s - said that the reasons were:

• The size
• The position
• The covenant

Therefore I recommend to other people to make use of internet resources to research houses in the area: lots of good material can be found; to state clearly why your property is not in the same position as other similar houses in the area; and to make sure you mention any additional features that could have a bearing on price - especially if they were probably overlooked at the original valuation.

Hope this is helpful….

tenby2

I am trying to do my council tax rebanding the house was brought in March 1995 for £37,000 but can not find houses for sale in 1991, 2 years either side of 1991 and 1989, 1990.1992, 1993.  so how do I find out about house prices in 1991 or either 2 years either side?

This is the message I got back from VOA 

WOODMEADOW ROAD, BIRMINGHAM, B30 3PH

 

Thank you for your email dated 16 June 2022.

 

You have not provided enough evidence in your email to allow us to undertake a review.

 

Our records show that the list of properties you provided are in the same band as your property therefore we can not use them as comparable properties.

 

Reference to average house price indices is not sufficient evidence for us to raise a review. House price indices cover wide geographic areas which have different property types. These indices only show general trends in house prices. A house price index is not an accurate indicator of value for a specific property and is of very little help in arriving at a council tax band.

 

The sales you provided are not close enough to the valuation date of 1 April 1991 to show clear evidence your property is incorrectly banded.

 

To be considered as comparable, you would need to provide evidence of properties in your locality that are:

•           The same type, for example detached or terraced

•           A similar size

•           Built at a similar time

 

The evidence we need may include any of the following:

 

• Evidence of identical, or very similar properties to yours, in your locality (within two miles of your property, this can be extended to ten miles for rural areas) which are in a lower band, please provide full address(es) including the postcode(s) of your comparable(s)

and/or

 

• Sales evidence in your locality, very close to the valuation date of 1 April 1991 (no more than two years either side of this date), which suggests your property might be incorrectly banded,

and/or

 

• Evidence that an error was made when your property was banded.

 

We will investigate the band if you are able to provide more compelling evidence to suggest your property has been incorrectly banded.

 

For further information about council tax, please visit: gov.uk/challenge-council-tax-band

 

Please note: If you are sending documents by email, the Valuation Office Agency can only accept emails up to size limit 25MB and we cannot access links to file sharing sites. If your email is above this size, you will need to split the information over several emails. Please use the same subject name and add for example 1 of 2, 2 of 2. If possible please save any attachments in PDF or JPG format.

 

Yours Sincerely

Customer Service Centre

lincroft1710

Pre 1994 house prices are not in the public domain. You may find archived newspaper property ads but these will only show asking prices


House prices in many areas in 1995 were 25% lower than in 1991, so £37,000 in 1995 would indicate around £49,000 in 1991. If all your comparables were in the same band and if they were similar to your home then it does suggest that your band may be correct 

tenby2

lincroft1710 said:

Pre 1994 house prices are not in the public domain. You may find archived newspaper property ads but these will only show asking prices


House prices in many areas in 1995 were 25% lower than in 1991, so £37,000 in 1995 would indicate around £49,000 in 1991. If all your comparables were in the same band and if they were similar to your home then it does suggest that your band may be correct 

Thank you Lincroft1710, they are ex-council houses as well.  my neighbour up the road is doing the same thing she said was in the wrong band asked for more evidence used the information I worked out in the table and they are saying they will now look at this.  I put the same information in and they are asking for more evidence.  below is off nationwide price index for 19991

I am trying to do my council tax rebanding the house was brought in March 1995 for £37,000 but can not find houses for sale in 1991, 2 years either side of 1991 and 1989, 1990.1992, 1993.  so how do I find out about house prices in 1991 or either 2 years either side?

This is the message I got back from VOA 

WOODMEADOW ROAD, BIRMINGHAM, B30 3PH

 

Thank you for your email dated 16 June 2022.

 

You have not provided enough evidence in your email to allow us to undertake a review.

 

Our records show that the list of properties you provided are in the same band as your property therefore we can not use them as comparable properties.

 

Reference to average house price indices is not sufficient evidence for us to raise a review. House price indices cover wide geographic areas which have different property types. These indices only show general trends in house prices. A house price index is not an accurate indicator of value for a specific property and is of very little help in arriving at a council tax band.

 

The sales you provided are not close enough to the valuation date of 1 April 1991 to show clear evidence your property is incorrectly banded.

 

To be considered as comparable, you would need to provide evidence of properties in your locality that are:

•           The same type, for example detached or terraced

•           A similar size

•           Built at a similar time

 

The evidence we need may include any of the following:

 

• Evidence of identical, or very similar properties to yours, in your locality (within two miles of your property, this can be extended to ten miles for rural areas) which are in a lower band, please provide full address(es) including the postcode(s) of your comparable(s)

and/or

 

• Sales evidence in your locality, very close to the valuation date of 1 April 1991 (no more than two years either side of this date), which suggests your property might be incorrectly banded,

and/or

 

• Evidence that an error was made when your property was banded.

 

We will investigate the band if you are able to provide more compelling evidence to suggest your property has been incorrectly banded.

 

For further information about council tax, please visit: 

 

Please note: If you are sending documents by email, the Valuation Office Agency can only accept emails up to size limit 25MB and we cannot access links to file sharing sites. If your email is above this size, you will need to split the information over several emails. Please use the same subject name and add for example 1 of 2, 2 of 2. If possible please save any attachments in PDF or JPG format.

 

Yours Sincerely

Customer Service Centre

tenby2

any help in trying to find out what the house was worth in 1991 or in 1992, 1993, 1990 and 1989

lincroft1710

Nationwide figures are miles out, I have in the past compared their guesses with actual sale prices and they were up to 20% out, always undervaluing the 1991 figure. Is the £37,000 the discounted sale price from council to tenant or a second sale? 

Poormum

Could anyone please tell me how long it took for you to get a banding change?? 

Voa finally agreed to review my banding on 11th May and I’ve not heard anything since. It’s been almost 3 months, I as just wondering if others waited this long? 

lincroft1710

Poormum said:

Could anyone please tell me how long it took for you to get a banding change?? 

Voa finally agreed to review my banding on 11th May and I’ve not heard anything since. It’s been almost 3 months, I as just wondering if others waited this long? 

Can take months, so don't be too concerned