Council tax band appeal advice please

Garingo

Can anyone please offer any advice on my case detailed below.



I tried the Martin Lewis council tax band challenge and discovered that I ticked all the boxes to progress to a formal challenge.

I live in Scotland and made a council tax band change proposal through the Scottish Assessors Association. This was subsequently passed on to Glasgow City council to investigate. Glasgow city council responded saying that they believed my council tax band was correct band that my proposal was rejected on the basis that I had lived in my home longer than 6 months. However, they said that I could appeal this decision.

Even though I am always pessimistic , I felt my case was reasonably strong and well worth challenging. So I sent off a letter of appeal outlining my reasons for challenging my council tax Band.

After many months, I received a letter outlining an appeal hearing. Unfortunately, the date didn’t suit and I had to postpone due to family commitments. I then received a second date for my appeal hearing, however, due to work commitments I was out the country during this period and had to postpone again.

During this time, I had done some research and I believed my case was now stronger than before and I also realised that I didn’t actually have to attend in person but instead submit my evidence for consideration. I submitted my evidence along with a letter stating that I would prefer to not appear in person as the evidence was all documented and that If I were to appear in person, I would simply be reading directly from my documentation. Conscious that I had postponed it twice, I thought this would save a lot of hassle for both the appeal panel and myself in trying to find a suitable date to attend.

I have now received a letter from the appeal hearing panel and they have statedthat my proposal has been rejected on the basis that I have lived in my home longer than 6 months. No mention of any consideration of my supporting evidence.

The questions I have:

1. IS this the normal type of response expected from an appeal hearing ?

2. Was my evidence even looked at or considered ? It appears not. Is this normal procedure ?

3. What is the point of an appeal if no evidence was considered and you cannot actually appeal out with the 6 month period ?

4. Can you appeal out with the 6 month period ?

5. What next ? what options do I have ?



I am not at all bitter as I was pessimistic to begin with but thought it was worth a challenge. If I have reached the end of the road then fine I will put it to bed. However, what I am slightly annoyed about is that my evidence wasn’t even considered and it appears that I have been given a standard response and the whole appeal was a complete waste of everyone’s time. If they had responded stating that my evidence was considered and was rejected due a, b and c. It would have ended there and I wouldn’t have bothered writing this post.



Any advice or anyone with a similar experience and how they dealt with it would be much appreciated.



Thanks.
G

tomtontom

The appeal failed at the first hurdle - it was out of time. They would not consider anything after that because the appeal would fail irrespective.

Garingo

Fair enough.
What is the point of inviting me to appeal ?
I believed the 6 month rule didn't apply and all challenges had to be investigated. Is this wrong ?

tomtontom

Garingo wrote: »

Fair enough.
What is the point of inviting me to appeal ?
I believed the 6 month rule didn't apply and all challenges had to be investigated. Is this wrong ?

You have a right to appeal nearly all official decisions, it is a key feature of our legal system. It is not for the other party to try to dissuade you from doing so, hence why you are advised of your right to appeal irrespective of how valid your case is.

Why do you believe the six month rule does not apply? Did you explain this in your appeal?

The tribunal only needs to go as far as is needed to ensure a fair outcome. If they are satisfied that your claim does not pass the first hurdle they have no need to go any further.

Garingo

i am not disputing what you are saying but it seems completely pointless to appeal.

It appears to me that I wasn't actually appealing the decision of which band my council tax should be in. I was actually appealing the decision that I am not allowed to challenge it as I have been in the house longer than 6 months.

Is this correct ? If that is correct then I have misunderstood.
As much as I disagree. If it's wrong. It's wrong regardless of how much time has passed.

lincroft1710

I don't know if the same procedure applies in Scotland, but at an invalid appeal hearing the Valuation Tribunal would ask the Valuation Office Agency (English equivalent of Assessor) representative to investigate the band. If this did not happen, then you should ask the Assessor to investigate your band and provide him with the evidence which you believe supports your case.

tomtontom is correct, your appeal failed solely because it was out of time. You can only ask the Assessor to investigate your band as I have outlined above.

Garingo

Lincroft. That is what I was expecting to happen. A rejection based on the assessors decision with some justification.

That didn't happen. The appeal was rejected based on the fact I have lived in the house longer than 6 months. Which sort of defeats the purpose of an appeal in my humble opinion.

I know I have reached the end of the road with it but I was really just after some clarity.

lincroft1710

I can only advise how the English/Welsh system works. The VOA is duty bound to ensure any CT band is correct, so any CT payer can ask for their band to be investigated. If the CT payer has been in the property less than 6 months then they can make a formal appeal and if they disagree with VOA decision, their case can be heard by the Valuation Tribunal.

The 6 month rule is absolute, you appealed outside that time so your appeal has to be found invalid.

Had you just asked the Assessor to investigate your band (since you would be out of time to make an appeal), hopefully they would have complied with this request. However if they said the band is correct, you have no right of appeal to a Tribunal.

Garingo

Thanks.

Ok one final question before I finally put this to bed.
When you say 'assessor' do you mean the Scottish assessors association (SAA) or do you mean Glasgow city council ?

lincroft1710

SAA, but from what you have posted, they may have changed the system in Scotland as the council were involved. In Eng and Wales, councils do not get involved in banding, all banding done by VOA part of HMRC.

Garingo

I think that...... is where all the confusion lies.
It's Not like the council or HMRC to make things a little grey now is it.

On reflection. The thing that annoys me most out of the whole episode, is not that I didn't win or get a council tax reduction or money backdated. It's actually that they wanted me appear in person in completely unfamiliar circumstances Infront of a tribunal which would have been definitely out with my comfort zone, let Me run through my script to essentially give me a predetermined result. Now that is unfair.

Thanks for your input.