Council Tax on annex advice!

Rambosmum

A friend of mine bought a house with an annex 'next door' - A living room/ bedroom, en suit bathroom and kitchenette. The council charged them separate CT until the kitchen was removed and a door knocked in to the main house. Prior to their purchase the house had CT as one and the review was simply triggered by them purchasing the property. As they had always planned to used the annex as part of the house they quickly got rid of the kitchenette and knocked it through, I think they paid 6 weeks of two lots of CT.

Hoploz

Yes I was going to suggest that perhaps this extra kitchen is making it possible to classify it separately.

Perhaps the planning dept could clarify? I mean, you could phone without giving the address details and ask the question hypothetically about how you would go about converting two dwellings to one.

What did the original planning permission state? Was it always designed as separate? If so maybe you could make some sort of Application to convert it to a part of the main house?

Doesn't answer your question of Why, but just attempting to offer some ideas to get around the problem once and for all.

booksurr

the annex question comes up relatively frequently . If you read back through Lincroft's posts you will find the answer as he is retired Valuation Office Agency - ie the dept responsible for deciding the CT bands for every property in the first place so he knows, you know

to save him writing it all again:
- yes a separate kitchen and bathroom is a primary factor
- the previous B&B use also supports the idea that it is self contained

you cannot get this situation altered unless and until you remove the kitchen and make the "annex" an indistinguishable part of the whole as that is the deciding factor

as to why now, simple, you triggered the reassessment by buying, hence the indicator registered against the property on the VOA online list, reassessment will be undertaken when triggered

plight

Thank you everyone for your help.
I phoned and they said we needed to either take out the en-suite or the kitchen so it couldnt be classified as self-contained.
We don't really want to pull out either the kitchen or en-suite as we have just updated for use when the family and grandchildren visit (often!!). It looks like we will just have to bite the bullet and pay the extra CT. Looks like once the authorities get involved you have no options but to toe the line!! I don't suppose we will even get an extra bin for the money...!
I really don't understand how the previous owners got away with it for so long - 6 yrs running a B&B with same layout and one CT?!

Thanks again for all the advice!
😊

booksurr

plight wrote: »

I really don't understand how the previous owners got away with it for so long - 6 yrs running a B&B with same layout and one CT?!

very simple, read the guidance on CT banding and you will see it can ONLY be changed when:
- either a new owner came along and triggered a reassessment (as you did!)
- or the Govt imposes a revaluation for the whole country (as has already happened in Wales)

The current owner could convert a 1 bed house to a 20 bed mansion (STPP!) and it would remain at the one bed CT rate until either of the above occur

AdrianC

plight wrote: »

We don't really want to pull out either the kitchen or en-suite as we have just updated for use when the family and grandchildren visit (often!!).

So you DO use the annex as a self-contained property? Not just for this short, temporary, one-off (honest, guv) period - but regularly?

plight

AdrianC: no we don't use it as a self-contained part of our property - no more than over a long weekend (coming up) or a week max, and it is always family and friends. Pretty sad the Big Brother is wanting to capitalise on our home even tho we are already on a hefty council tax band. Let's see what transpires when/or if we get a response back.


booksurr: There have been two previous owners since 2001 and it didn't trigger any reassessment then. If only they could tell us exactly how this has come about then we have a chance of understanding but so far no logical explanation - except lies when they told us the council had alerted them. We contact the council who knew nothing about it and actually told us it could be a scam. Took a while to find out it was genuine.
Perhaps it is part of a nationwide revaluation but haven't heard anything locally about that.

Gigervamp

I don't understand why you don't want to get rid of the kitchen? When I have family or friends stay, I cook for them.

AdrianC

plight wrote: »

AdrianC: no we don't use it as a self-contained part of our property - no more than over a long weekend (coming up) or a week max, and it is always family and friends.

That does sound like a "Yes, we do"...

even tho we are already on a hefty council tax band.

Look on the bright side - that part of the property will be excluded from the main house in the future, if it is decided that it's self-contained.

m1kjm

I would convert one of the kitchens into a utility room by taking out the cooker and cooker point. After the inspection, if your guests have to have access to more than a microwave and a toaster, get the cooker re-installed. The electrician's fees involved are going to be a lot less than two lots of council tax.