Council Tax Band Revalued - Appeal Process

SilverSix

Hi,
I moved in to my new build house exactly a year ago andregistered with my local council to pay council tax etc. As I expected I was‘Band D - £1,422’.

A couple of weeks ago I received a letter from my local VOAsating they were reassessing the value of my home. On Friday I received aletter stating I was now going to be ‘Band E - £1,738’, an extra £316 per year.I wasn’t expecting it to move at all!

The reason given was stated as ‘Other – please call yourlocal VOA office to find out’ and when I spoke to the representative she statedit had been recorded in error previously. Knowing the threshold between band Dand E being £88,000 (by 1991 prices) I asked what she valued my property at.She couldn’t/wouldn’t give me a figure but just stated she had looked at otherproperties in the area of similar size had sold for.

Now I’ve checked my property on the Nationwide House PriceCalculator/Housing Index:

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/hpi/calculator/calculator.htm

And backdated to 1991 (any quarter) and it falls well within theBand D threshold by a good few thousand pounds both based on what I paid(confirmed as the correct value by my mortgage lender/conveyance) and also whenentering the figure it was listed as, £15k more than what I paid.

The VOA rep said they did not go by the house price index asit was ‘not accurate’ for a reason I can’t remember. However she still couldn’tgive me the figure she had valued my house at both today 2012 and subsequentlyas of 1991. This leads me to believe she could well be talking out of herbackside and based on this I would like to appeal their decision.

Does anybody have any advice or thoughts on the grounds of my appeal?As quite frankly if the value of my house is unknown then I don’t see how itcan be banded at all. Going on sheer size alone seems completely backwards.

Thanks,

Ben

lincroft1710

Any house built during the last 21 years obviously will not have a 1991 sale price. VOA therefore compare newbuilds with nearby houses of a size and type as close as possible to the subject dwelling, both 1991 sale prices and settled appeals.

I'm ex VOA and the usual HPI error was 10%, the worst I found was 25%! The VOA are not required to give a specific value for a dwelling, just decide in which band it should be placed. Thus the VOA person you spoke to was answering correctly.

SilverSix

Thanks,

Would it be pointless to try and argue my case based on these grounds? Is this contestable at all? or do I just need to accept that I've been lucky to have slightly cheaper council tax for a year than I should have had?

Red_dog_Sam

You are entitled to contest the decision by making a formal proposal to alter the band within 6 months from the date thay altered it. More info and links to the online forms on their website:

http://www.voa.gov.uk/corporate/CouncilTax/whatToDoIfYouDisagreeWithCTBand-England.html#circumstances

See if you can gather some evidence to support your case first - for example, check the VOA site to see the bands given to any other similar properties in the street or nearby. Is it just your property or have they all been changed to E? Perhaps yours has been the only one charged at a lower rate up to now and this is just aligning you with all the others?
It doesn't cost anything to challenge the re-valuation so if you can find some supporting evidence you have nothing to lose and £300+ a year at stake.

lincroft1710

Little I can add to Red_dog_Sam's post. You could look for similar size/type houses on other recent developments and see what band they are in.

Buzby

Are you being singled out? A look at the Valuation Register will show what others are paying, and you can use this to support your case (assuming a !!!!-up!).

SilverSix

As you say, it's worth a shot! We don't appear on that site yet as the address isn't recognised however I'll give it my best and report back how it went.

Thanks.

Edit: Having just checked by manually trawling through hundreds of pages my neighbours are all band E too. May have to take this on the chin.