Question re Council Tax and re-banding following alterations

victoria12345

Hi everyone

I wonder if you can assist with a question I have on the above.

First some background :

We bought a fully refurbished and altered farmhouse in May 2008. The property particulars listed us as a Band E for Council tax. (As a side issue we sold part of the barn in June 2009 which was attached to the Farm to my parents to convert into a cottage). At the time of the barn completion the assessor visited the property and advised that he would list the property as included with the farm - so one single entry. Our banding therefore increased to a G at this time...from this sale date (2009) due to the cottage (and perhaps due to the refurbishment improvements of the farm when we bought it, I am unsure). My parents re-imburse us a share for their Cottage. This worked fine until my parents were missed off the voters role and advised the council of this. This then prompted an investigation and the assessor came out again this year and deemed that the property should be split into two entries.

They then gave my paretns a bill for 8K for the cottage going back to the sale date in 2009 and we got a refund of a small amount based on the farm going from a G to a F i.e taking into account for the farm only. We have taken legal advice and we are aware that legislation allows the assessor to bill from the sale date (even though the assessor made an error in the first place and put the proeprty as one entry) - we are trying to appeal the banding however in order to achieve a higher credit and a lower overall back dated bill for the Cottage element.

Now the main question :

We have been told the banding is now an F rather than a G but this means that it has not gone back to the original E that the property was when we bought in 2008. Is this due to the assessor now taking into effect the house in its new improved state - it was a refurbished farm house and the improvements and alterations were all made prior to us purchasing the house. We were not made aware by our laweyer at the time that we would face an increased banding which could be backdated to the date of our sale ? Does this sound correct? If this is the case, I would have thought the re-banding would only be liable from when the valuation roll changed i.e. now in 2014 not back dated to 2009.

Can anyone shed some light on this please ?

Torry_Quine

Any improvements to a property which raises the council tax band take effect when the property changes hands so yes it is correct.