Council tax banding change notification after buying house

Tancred

Surely the solution is to sell the house and move somewhere less expensive?

lincroft1710

Furts wrote: »

Interesting! I am aware of a home, not in Wales, where the following is occurring.

The homeowner has done extensive alterations. The council would like to increase the banding by 3 or 4 bandings - this has not been decided and is up for discussion. The increase can only occur once the work is complete. The Valuer (not the council) is visiting every 3 months to monitor the work and waiting to act. The homeowner is saying I need a Building Regulations Completion Certificate to show work is finished. There is no Certificate, therefore you cannot re-band the house.

The onus is on the homeowner to seek the Certificate and if he chooses not to there appears to be nothing that can be enforced.

What experiences do other mse users have on this?

Unless the rules have recently changed, the CT band cannot be increased on account of works carried out by the current owner. I'm not aware of any requirement in CT law for there to be a BRC cert before the band can be increased. In many cases (as you will have read on this board) there is no certificate for the building works.

Furts

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Unless the rules have recently changed, the CT band cannot be increased on account of works carried out by the current owner. I'm not aware of any requirement in CT law for there to be a BRC cert before the band can be increased. In many cases (as you will have read on this board) there is no certificate for the building works.

Thank you for this. The banding was reduced progressively before the works commenced. From D, to C, then to A. The owner suspects that as it was straightforward to get it reduced it will be equally straightforward for the Valuer to put it back up.

I await comments with interest.

Furts

To make matters clear I should have added it is the owner who is saying the house is not complete. Hence the banding cannot be increased. To prove the point the owner is saying there is no Completion Certificate, thus the works are deemed ongoing.

The Valuer is not asking for a Completion Certificate. It would appear he wishes to up the band as soon as possible.

lincroft1710

Furts wrote: »

The owner suspects that as it was straightforward to get it reduced it will be equally straightforward for the Valuer to put it back up.

It is not. I could understand if the house had been deleted from the Valuation List and the "Valuer" was keen to put it back in now that renovations were substantially completed.

It is very rare for a band to be reduced because of renovation work. If there has been a partial demolition prior to new works, the band should not be reduced. The usual procedure in extreme cases would be deletion.

There is a possibility that the band was reduced in error and the "Valuer" wants to reinstate the band. This can be done without the house being completed.

Fire_Fox

Furts wrote: »

Thank you for this. The banding was reduced progressively before the works commenced. From D, to C, then to A. The owner suspects that as it was straightforward to get it reduced it will be equally straightforward for the Valuer to put it back up.

I await comments with interest.

When a band is reduced it is normally backdated to whenever that homeowner purchased or tenant took occupation not simply from the date of the rebanding. AFAIK the only time a property can be rebanded upwards with immediate effect but without a change of ownership is if a new self contained property is created in the renovations, say a granny annexe or conversion to flats.

Furts

Fire_Fox wrote: »

When a band is reduced it is normally backdated to whenever that homeowner purchased or tenant took occupation not simply from the date of the rebanding. AFAIK the only time a property can be rebanded upwards with immediate effect but without a change of ownership is if a new self contained property is created in the renovations, say a granny annexe or conversion to flats.

Interesting response. Can anyone back this up?

The one I referred to has a garage complete with a dodgy roof. Years ago I chatted to the owners about this being a granny flat. Nothing ever happened.

I wonder if the valuer has spotted this? Or might a neighbour have spoken to the Valuer? Or might the Valuer think this is an annex being built?- when I last saw it it was surrounded by building materials and pallets, but only for storage

Does a Valuer monitor these things and be proactive?

lincroft1710

VOA tend to be very unproactive. The vast majority of notifications about changes to properties come from the local council revenues dept. VOA staff will inspect newbuilds, creation of new dwellings by division or merger of existing dwellings or conversion of commercial premises, and extensions once a sale has occurred.

Only time they would "keep an eye on a dwelling" would be when they have inspected one of the above but it is not completed or sufficiently advanced and are therefore unable to band it. These circumstances rarely occur.

Effective dates for band reductions are start of CT or date property first entered in Valuation List where it is a normal band too high scenario, any occupier of the dwelling who has overpaid their CT is entitled to a refund. However where there has been a physical change causing the band reduction, it is the date the change occurred.