Successful Council Tax Appeal Reversed After 15 Years

crittertog

Hi all,

Not sure if this is the right place, but it seemed the closest match ...

When the council tax was introduced in 1993, all the houses identical to ours were banded as an E. We thought this was wrong, and along with another neighbour, successfully appealed them to band D. In 1996, another neighbour successfully appealed theirs to a band D when they moved in, meaning that just under half were band D, and just over half were band E.

Last week, we got a letter stating that because the majority of the houses in the street were a band E, they were reviewing the banding of ours, with a view to increasing it. When we spoke to the VOA yesterday, this was confirmed, with the grounds being given as "the majority of the similar houses are band E, so yours must be wrong", and the change taking effect immediately. When we mentioned the 3 appealed bandings, they stated in an off-hand manner "some appeals in 1995 were processed incorrectly". When asked about viewing the evidence they were using, they stated that they could not divulge this due to the Data Protection Act (a falsehood, as a price and address is not personally identifiable data - when questioned, there was silence), and quickly added that both they and the Land Registry were exempt from the Freedom Of Information Act (another falsehood, as both have an FoI Officer!)

Looking at purchase prices, an identical property was purchased in 1987 for £75k, and a similar property in 1996 for the same amount (it would be identical to ours, if said property didn't have a large extension). I know it can't be used, but the Nationwide value checker puts the 1991 value as £77k.

Anyone have any ideas as to where to go from here..? I'm guessing it's a trip to the library to see if I can find adverts for the other property that sold in the early 1990's..?

Somehow, I think the VOA are just going to stick their fingers in their ears and go "la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-we're-right-you're-wrong-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la"...

lincroft1710

The VOA are correct in saying they cannot disclose sales evidence. This pre-dates CT when house prices where a big secret and although VOA were supplied with details of all property sales, these were not to be disclosed. With the introduction of CT, Parliament permitted the disclosure of sale prices but only when a valid appeal had been made.

Appeal against the rebanding and if the appeal goes to a Valuation Tribunal hearing, you will be given the sales evidence which supports the rebanding.

It must have been a fairly serious error in judgement in the original appeal for the VOA to decide to disturb a settled appeal after 17 years.

Did you mean 1988 rather than 1978 as 1978 house prices were considerably lower than 1996.

crittertog

Thanks for the input

lincroft1710 wrote: »

The VOA are correct in saying they cannot disclose sales evidence.

From what I've read, that's true, I was just a bit riled that they quoted the DPA, which I don't believe applies in this case as it's not (IMO) PII.

lincroft1710 wrote: »

It must have been a fairly serious error in judgement in the original appeal for the VOA to decide to disturb a settled appeal after 17 years.

To be honest, I'm not convinced by their reasoning - the reason they gave was that as the others are higher, our 3 must therefore be wrong. Especially as they processed the re-rebanding of 4 properties in under 4 days. It would be quite a mistake indeed in handling the appeals if they were all wrong, especially as it's 3 separate appeals over multiple years! Apparently, what triggered it was another neighbour appealing their banding.

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Did you mean 1988 rather than 1978 as 1978 house prices were considerably lower than 1996.

Indeed - I meant 1987. Doh. Fixed