Appealing council tax band

aaz01

We moved into a new-build house 2 years ago. There are several house types in our development:

House type 1 (£226,000): Band E
House type 2 (£230,000): Band F
House type 3 (£265,000): Band F
House type 4 (£300,000): Band G

We have a house type 2, but negotiated the cost to £226,000. Looking at Zoopla sold prices, it seems we are the only ones to have bought at a lower price (the developer was offering cashback type deals, but reducing the actual cost was difficult).

Is that enough for us to appeal our band? Our house was advertised only £5k more than the band E house and £35k less than the other band F house. We paid exactly the same as the band E house. Is it worth trying to get lowered to Band E?

MrJB

The assessment is based upon the perceived rateable value as at 1st April 1991. The assessment will probably be based on size & other facilities.

What is it that made your property worth less than the other Type 2's? Just because you happened to do a good deal or is it materially worse? ie worse facilities?

You would need to appeal it to the Valuation office on the basis that the hypothetical market value as at 1st April 1991 was less than £120,000 - which it probably was!

aaz01

It was pretty difficult to lower the price of the house. They tried offering us pretty much anything other than actually lowering the price, but I persevered. Basically when they offered something else I said "oh I didn't realise that was an option - yeah we'll take that as well as the lower price"... Got it all in the end :j.
Not sure why as the houses were selling like hot cakes (and the new phase is still selling out months before houses are finished) - they must have been feeling generous.

We could say that our house is worth slightly less than the other type 2s as it sits a bit further back on the street so we have a slightly smaller garden. Around 10% smaller than the others.

MrJB

I would go down the route of appealing it - you can do it through https://www.gov.uk/council-tax-appeals/challenge-your-band.

State that you paid below the passing rate for other properties of Type 2, and as a result you believe the reduced garden has materially altered the value of the property as at 1st April 1991, this is further confirmed as the purchase price was the same as other band E properties and as a consequence the banding should be altered.

Good luck! I deal with The Valuation Office Agency on commercial stuff and they're pretty hard going!

aaz01

I'll give it a shot, thank you for that :beer:

knightstyle

We got our house dropped into a lower band after buying it. I think there is a time limit to do this. You will need floor area, number of rooms and number of bathrooms and other similar houses banding to compare it with.
The price you paid makes no difference to the band, the rent you would have got if letting it in 1991 is the base for the calculation.

Podzilla

Council tax bands are not calculated based on current prices. They are valued at what the property would have been worth on the open market between April '91 - '93 so even though you have paid less for the current property band E properties would have been worth anything between £88,001 to £120,000 and F £88,001 to £120,000. The banding is not assessed by the council but by the valuation office agency so you would need to speak to them rather than the council. They use a range of criteria such as style of house, overall square footage etc to come up with the banding. So even if you've paid less than next door if your property is the same size etc. they will be in the same band. For newly built properties they compare properties that were similar to yours that were sold around 91-93 on the open market to calculate what your house would have been worth at that time.
That being said you do get 6 months to automatically appeal a banding when moving into a property so it's always worth a try to appeal but with it being a new property it is likely that the valuation has just been done based on the most up to date banding benchmark.
Have a look at the valuation office agency website.

lincroft1710

MrJB wrote: »

and as a result you believe the reduced garden has materially altered the value of the property as at 1st April 1991,

I'm ex VOA and I don't think I saw any band of an estate house reduced because the garden was slightly smaller. VOA tend to adopt a "broad brush" approach and garden size unless exceptionally small or large would be completely ignored. Unless the Type 2 house is larger than Type 1, then I would suggest both should be Band E and you should emphasise this aspect.

OP are you in England and if so are you in a low priced area as where I live (southern half of England) a £265K house would be Band D.

ellie27

I challenged the band of our new build house....... 5 years after moving into it! I was successful and got it down a band. I found similar sized properties which were just along the road at a lower band than ours and that was it! Got the band lowered and the overpayment back in cash!

If your house is pretty much same size as the type 1 then I would say do appeal.