Council Tax Advice

wimper

So I need some advice!

I’ve recently bought a property and when the sale was going through, we were advised by the daughter of the vendor (she was looking after the sale) that she thought her parents were paying over the odds on council tax. The house is currently classified as Band G (£160K-£320K). I’ve been doing a little digging and have reviewed the website section about council tax reclassification, and think I have a reasonable case to answer, but wanted some opinions.

We completed on the house for £425K in December. Using the Nationwide house price calculator, it suggests that the house would have been worth £130k (1991 Q1) or £132.5K (1991 Q2). With April being right on the boundary of Q1 and Q2, I’ve listed both figures to see that there wasn’t a major movement.

Looking at neighbours houses on the street, the main problem is that they are all individually designed houses, so it is a little difficult to check value vs. However, houses of a similar size are in the same banding.

My gut says that I have everything to gain, from trying to get it reclassified, with little risk. The band down is £120K to £160K, so from the valuations I am comfortably below the top of the band. With the current band I am in, I think there is little chance of being pushed towards the upper limit of the banding, so the risk of increasing my council tax is very small.

Finally, the main thing that is making me think I should be able to sneak down a band is that when we bought the property, the bottom half of the garden was sold separately. I believe that this would affect the valuation - I know the vendor changed the price when they were trying to sell with the land, so the same must be true of its 1991 value.

Thoughts?

wimper

Bump...

Not sure if I've posted this in the right place?

theonlywayisup

Have a read here http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/council-tax-bands-change

Gers

You'll probably find the right people to gave advice on http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=187

wimper

Cheers both.


I have read that theonlywayisup. Was just canvasing opinion if people thought it was worth the risk!


Gers - Thanks, I'll have a post over there...

thescouselander

Yes, give it a go. I tried this at my last house and although we had a solid case it was rejected. The key factor was the amount of time I left between moving in and making the application - if you do it within 6 months of moving in the process is slightly different and I believe the odds will be more in your favour.

CIS

If I remember correctly less than 0.15% of bands were increased following an appeal in 15/16.

Craig