Council Tax Band database

Milky_Mocha

Milky_Mocha wrote:

Wow, I too live in Hawkinge on the new bit. We must be neighbours. I am not surprised a lot of complaints are about this council. Its ridiculous. We have moaned about it for ages but just did not know what to do. Maybe we should form some kind of alliance against this. It's so wrong. What we pay in council tax on this property is more than what is paid on our 4 bedroom house in London! Anyone who knows Folkestone would agree with me that this is an injustice. I have often wondered what exactly all this money is going towards. The city in general has a lot of potential but has been stagnant for so long.

Sigh

Just to add, when we first moved in the council tried to make us pay for a bin. It wasn't cheap either - someone correct me but I think they asked for £130 odd. This is in addition to council tax by the way, not deductible from it.

We absolutely refused and were prepared to fight with them long and hard.

Okay that's my rant over - for now.

TimC

bunking_off wrote:

nearlyrich

Sounds like you were lucky. What happens at the appeal is they have to produce properties of comparable size, and prove that they were sold at a value in the relevant band back in 1991. The Valuation Office produced 3 properties at my appeal, one of which was withdrawn when I pointed out how different it was to mine. Of the remaining two;

a) one was in a part of town that was and is the most desired location and carries a price premium (but given the tribunal's 50 miles away, they'd hardly know that!), and
b) the other was one that had patently been bought by an absolute mug back in 1991. I know that, because I'd been around it when I was buying my place in 2002 - it was ok but not for me. In the 11 intervening years (recalling 1991 was near a trough in house prices), it had increased in value only by 40%....in other words it had exchanged hands at a well-inflated price back then. The only conclusion I can draw on that is that if you accept an incorrect banding, you don't just condemn yourself, but also anyone else who appeals nearby in the future as you'll be considered a precedent.

Unfortunately, regardless of the above and the fact that 100+ similar properties on my estate have a lower banding, the tribunal still found against - hence my conclusion that it was a waste of time filling out the paperwork. Incidentally, there's no right of appeal. Galling though, given it means I pay £350/yr more council tax than my immediate neighbours as a result.

You do seem to have been unlucky - when we bought our newly built house in '97 it was put in Band F - a quick trip to the local council, armed with the estate agents map revealed that all the previous identical houses had been banded E - except for the batch of four that ours is in.

A letter detailing this went to the Valuation Office - who responded very quickly that our appeal was "well founded" and our band was reduced to E - zero stress! Gave copies of the letter to the neighbours too.

Norma_Desmond

Sorry folks, but this will make you spit - 4 bed, 200 year old stone cottage on north Pembs. coast......£568 (band - an increase of £8 on last year!

driller_killer

I think what many people miss is that its not the amount you pay, but the band that you're in. Shouldn't an identical house be in the same band, no matter where it is in the country? After all, its likely to have similar occupancy, who'll make similar demands, so shouldn't they be in a similar band? Forget the c*** about rich people pay more - thats what income tax and national insurance is for, or are we to have a campaign against VAT next, surely the most regressive of all taxation.

We live in Wales where there's just been a re-banding exercise designed to reflect current house prices. It was 'sold' to us that things would be averaged out, ie, a similar number of people would move down a band as move up one. It didn't work out that way and a massive majority have been moved up. Quite obviously it was a tax raising scam. We've gone from D to E. For the record, its a 1930's 3 bed semi.

England - you'll get yours post-election!

OWT_FOR_NOWT

Would be a good site, if it were up to date. I have checked 3 properies in the swansea area and all 3 give the old banding. If I were going to move home then I would not use this site to check the council tax band.

Paul_Varjak

OWT_FOR_NOWT wrote:

Would be a good site, if it were up to date. I have checked 3 properies in the swansea area and all 3 give the old banding. If I were going to move home then I would not use this site to check the council tax band.

What do you mean by the 'old banding'?

oxter

Is there an equivalent site for Scotland?

kingbing

dougk wrote:

The biggest cause of the council tax increases is the Police...look at the % increases they have had over the past 5 or 6 years and what have we got for it?

Err... record police numbers - 15,000 more than there were 4 years ago?

Council tax has gone up a fair amount in most places, and in many cases it is to pay for the substantial numbers of extra police - police that people say they want (but don;t appear to want to pay for).

Council tax increases are not in direct relationship with central government funding to local authorities. In fact, every single local authority got an above-inflation increase in funding from central government this year. If one looks closely at the funding figures, local authorities have had a one third increase in funding, in real terms, in the last 8 years. Some of that additional funding has gone on things such as the police.

I suggest people look at their local authority accounts on their website to see how much money they have received from central government.

shrek101

I can see where you are coming from bridiej. However, there are services which are often essential, and we would start to complain if for some reason were couldn't get them because of cuts.

In my own area most of the money council tax is given to our Local Authority the local council get very little of it.

I don't use many of these services myself, although I recognize that I may one day need them, I don't resent other people who may need them.

What I do resent in the amount we pay compared with inflation and or there are many people earning good wages far more than the pittance I get that don't pay a penny. Is it really fair that people on a fixed income and or low income now pay far money in Council tax than income tax?

Less than two years ago my Police Authority bought Land rover discoveries some with leather seats. They claim these are essential for the operation of an efficient service. It later transpired that some of the vehicles did very low mileage per week. If they were for operation purposes, why the need for luxury fittings? They were even critized only a month ago by the audit commission for banking most of the money from the 80% increase in budget.

Also don't believe all that hype last year that the North got a substantial grants compared with the south, its utter bull, every year for 10 years now, I have had to pay well above inflation busting increase, and you guessed it I live up North. Also the hype about pensioners suffering, yes many are, and that is wrong, but also there are many other people on low incomes, fixed incomes that are suffering just as much.

Both the Tories and Labour want to bribe pensioners because at present they represent a large vote, they also shouting the loudest. It's only now the politians are listening, frightened of losing there jobs perhaps?

bridiej wrote:

I realise that the money goes for other services but when the only service you get yourself is your bins emptied it's a bit much really!


sorry Shrek - I think I clicked on the "Edit" button instead of "Quote" so it added my comments to your post!!! Changed in back now......

nearlyrich

Err... record police numbers - 15,000 more than there were 4 years ago?

So where are they all when my neighbour needed them on a Thursday, the response was "we can send someone to see you next Tuesday" great service?

4 years ago we had 3 full time police stations and a couple of part time (Ie manned on the hour for 15 mins between patrols) in the local area which consistes of 3 large towns and several rural villages. Now we have a part time police station which is manned 9 to 5 Mon to Fri and the rest of our policing including all calls taken in the next major town 10 miles away, which easily gets cut off in snow etc.

Better service? I think not, the operators don't know the area at all, I honestly can't remember when I saw a patrol car and the community beat officer doesn't answer his mobile or return calls.