Council Tax Banding Appeals
thefuzzbox
Forumite 37 Posts
.co.Hello, 1st time poster so apologies if this is not in the right section/has been covered in detail elsewhere etc
Anyway, have recently moved house - and taken advantage of a lot of the tips of this board (cheaper gas/electric/telephone/ISP), so with fresh impetus was looking for other ways to save.
Happened to take a look at https://www.voa.gov.uk and saw that of the 12 houses in my street, 4 of them are on a lower council tax banding (Band E instead of F). These houses are pretty much all identical (some of them have double garages instead of singles, not mine though).
I should point out that the 4 lower banded houses, all appealled and had their band reduced from F to E. (can see this info free on the voa.org website)
So, given that I'm within the 6 month limit after moving (which allows you to appeal), I've put in an online appeal using the simple justification that 4 other people in the street have successfully appealled and had their bands reducing so why can't I.
Admittedly they might not be the most original grounds for an appeal, and I won't find out until the beginning of July, but could be a fair saving of almost 300 quid.
Has anyone had any experience of appealling against their council tax banding. I'd also be interested in knowing of anyone who has come across the horror scenario of appealling but the voa deciding to increase the band (although on the appeal you specify what you think the correct band should be, so maybe they can't do this).??
Anyway, have recently moved house - and taken advantage of a lot of the tips of this board (cheaper gas/electric/telephone/ISP), so with fresh impetus was looking for other ways to save.
Happened to take a look at https://www.voa.gov.uk and saw that of the 12 houses in my street, 4 of them are on a lower council tax banding (Band E instead of F). These houses are pretty much all identical (some of them have double garages instead of singles, not mine though).
I should point out that the 4 lower banded houses, all appealled and had their band reduced from F to E. (can see this info free on the voa.org website)
So, given that I'm within the 6 month limit after moving (which allows you to appeal), I've put in an online appeal using the simple justification that 4 other people in the street have successfully appealled and had their bands reducing so why can't I.
Admittedly they might not be the most original grounds for an appeal, and I won't find out until the beginning of July, but could be a fair saving of almost 300 quid.
Has anyone had any experience of appealling against their council tax banding. I'd also be interested in knowing of anyone who has come across the horror scenario of appealling but the voa deciding to increase the band (although on the appeal you specify what you think the correct band should be, so maybe they can't do this).??
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I wasn't best pleased especially as our Council Tax is one of the highest in London and probably the country.
In the process of doing the same thing after one of my neighbours did the same and won.
Its taking a long time so far three months have gone by and the hearing like you is due in July.
I'm aiming to go from a band D to C.
My reason was that an identical house (same style and builder) won just up the road. It started off with one house appealing, since a number have - you could say thatt orginally that our house was borderline anyway based on what we paid.
I wouldn't have thought yours should increase because you must be close to the lower band and with what you've said about the other houses you have a strong case - but don't bank on it.
I know if we get the money then its going into a savings account and forgotten about - until needs must.
I'm appealing after 10 years in the property - so hoping a back-date until the banding tax started.
Good luck! my fingners are crossed for both of us.
The effective date of alteration is 19 October 2001 (the week I moved in) so, yes, I think yours could well be backdated too StratApproach :)
I don't know why this has happened as I haven't appealed at all. This was a brand new house when we moved in so although I'd thought about appealing I'd always assumed they would have got the band right in the first place.
Still, I'm not grumbling. Two and a half years' worth of backdated council tax for the difference should work out at a couple of hundred pounds. Guess who'll be getting the rounds in the Arms this evening? ;D
Makes you wonder how much time they spent looking into it. I thought I had a rather flimsy reason for appealling!!
I don't think I have much chance, but I live in lincolnshire and my band C house is worth around £130k. I've been to my local council website, and it shows the bandings are based on the value of a property on a 'common date', in this case April 1991, as follows:
BAND VALUE PAYABLE
A up to 40k £769
B 40-52k £897
C 52-68k £1025
... and so on
My house was built in 1999, and I'm no property expert but i bet if it was around in 1991 it'd be worth 40-52k.
Does anyone recommend taking this angle to appeal in this case? Or in the case of new builds is it simply the cost when they were actually built that counts?
It is the estimated cost in 1991 (even if your house didn't exist in 1991).
They will estimate it by comparison with properties of the same size nearby.
If you know of nearby properties of the same size in a lower band then you could use that as evidence, but I was told they would have to be very close by (within about 2 miles).
It a pretty inexact system.
These often have the council tax band in the details.
The council reduced both bands and we have saved a few hundred pounds in those years.
To get the banding for any property in the Uk (?!) go to https://www.voa.gov.uk and click on council tax,
as long as you know the postcode, and the house number, it will show you the band, and the banding history i.e. appeals
or the following should take you straight to the search pages:
http://www.voa.gov.uk/council_tax/cti_home.htm