Council tax rebanding

joshieg3011

a friend of mine thinks her house is in the wrong banding re concil tax. On phoning the council to query this, she was told that because she had owned the house for 7 years, she should have advised them of this within 6 months of moving in and therefore would not be rebanded and she could not have this overpayment back dated. The council is in west Lothian, Scotland. Does anyone have any advice on what she can do as I'm not sure this is correct.

Many thanks

HappyMJ

The council are not responsible for the banding she'll need to go through the VOA.

elmer

In scotland you need to contact the Assessor for your area

elmer

bobajob_1966

The council are correct, except in limited circumstances you cannot ask for a reassessment outside the first six months of CT liability.

Bogof_Babe

How is that fair, when until quite recently it was not possible to find out the bands that other houses in the road were on?

We've lived in our Band E house since before Council Tax was introduced, and I only found out a couple of years ago that an identical house opposite is on Band D. I haven't done anything about it because we have since made improvements which would probably take it into E anyway now, so a claim would get messy, but all the same it has only come to light in the last few years, so how could we have known we were in the wrong band (or at least a different band to an identical house) back in 1991 (was that when C/T started?).

CIS

so how could we have known we were in the wrong band (or at least a different band to an identical house) back in 1991 (was that when C/T started?).

Council Tax valuation bands have always been a matter of public record (although not always available on-line).

Bogof_Babe

CIS wrote: »

Council Tax valuation bands have always been a matter of public record (although not always available on-line).

Was the general public made aware of that?

deedee71

Bogof_Babe wrote: »

How is that fair, when until quite recently it was not possible to find out the bands that other houses in the road were on?

We've lived in our Band E house since before Council Tax was introduced, and I only found out a couple of years ago that an identical house opposite is on Band D. I haven't done anything about it because we have since made improvements which would probably take it into E anyway now, so a claim would get messy, but all the same it has only come to light in the last few years, so how could we have known we were in the wrong band (or at least a different band to an identical house) back in 1991 (was that when C/T started?).

I would go ahead and contact the assessor on their website and put in a proposal (for rebanding). They shouldn't take into account any changes until a property sells, so it's the next owner who would get moved up a band.

I'm sure I saw Martin Lewis recently on tv saying you have 6 months from when you find out you are in the wrong band.....so you say you only just checked online and have noticed a discrepancy.

CIS

Was the general public made aware of that?

At the time I don't know how it was publicised.

sapphire4940

I have successfully checked our tax banding, which has been wrong for 20 years!! and with the help of Martins Tips have received a cashback payment of just under £2000!! Also had banding lowered a band. The Valuation Office Agency were helpful and took only two months to sort out.