Council tax banding / wooden sun room?

CIS

davilown wrote: »

I may be wrong but your council tax banding is reviewed when a marker is placed on it following a planning application. Whether it's changed then or when the house is sold I don't know

It will be reviewed on sale or transfer.

If an error correction occurs then the error will only correct the banding based on the property as it was at the time of banding. Any changes since the banding, such as an extension, wouldn't be relevant to the banding that was being corrected.

lincroft1710

Council Tax banding is based on what a house would sell for on 1 April 1991 (Eng and Scot), 1 Apr 2003 (Wales). Can't comment on how Scottish Assessors carried out the original banding, but in E and W, the VOA gave the agents all the details they had on properties, so they could use these in connection with a brief external inspection from the road. The details were as at 1 April 1990.

Had it been in E or W, OP's sun room would most probably have been treated as a conservatory, usually adding minimal value to the estimated sale price. However because of the very fact of precise upper limit of each band, a house right at the top of the band could be tipped over into the next band by the addition of a conservatory.

A CT band cannot be increased on account of extensions, alterations or additions carried out by the current owner after 1 April 1993 (E and S), 1 April 2005 (W) or after the date the property was first assessed for CT. But it can be increased if the works were carried out prior to 1 April 1993 (E and S), 1 Apr 2005 (W) but not currently reflected in the band or were carried out by a previous owner

glasgowdan

Thanks again all.

The house is one we bought a year ago. The band has not changed since the purchase and I am suggesting it is not in the correct band in the first place due to very close similarity to the neighbour's house, which is a band lower. Both houses have extensions and I believe the floorspace to be almost the same in both house.

Scottish assessors have on file that our house is 33% larger than the neighbour, which it is not. They have suggested that we are right at the edge of the CT band.

Apparently in Scotland the banding was decided on more desktop data than the well documented drive-by of some areas of the UK.

The sunroom was built in the 1970s, had no heating when we bought it, single pane windows that don't close, no brickwork in the structure. We have not altered the house other than cosmetically, and I suspect the sunroom really has to go as it is flimsy and not likely to last long from this point on.

I have been told by email (although this has been a very long-winded process over the last 14 months where they have changed their story on more than one occasion) that a sunroom does count in the overall m2 but does NOT count when they are deciding how many 'apartments' the house has. This being contrary to what I was told in person where the banding has been influenced by measurements where the conservatory has a reduction factor applied to it due to the sparse brickwork in the walls, and the sunroom would not be counted due to the all-wood and single pane glass construction.

So I am just trying to see if there is anything definitive, in documentation or otherwise less vague and debatable!

lincroft1710

glasgowdan wrote: »

So I am just trying to see if there is anything definitive, in documentation or otherwise less vague and debatable!

As far as I am aware there is nothing in legislation which states anything other than the basic "open market value as at 1 April 1991 (2003 in Wales)". The VOA do publish online "The Council Tax Manual" but it does not set out or suggest how to approach valuing a particular property.

I am not familiar with the SAA so can't say if they publish something similar

elonii

glasgowdan wrote: »

I have been told by email (although this has been a very long-winded process over the last 14 months where they have changed their story on more than one occasion) that a sunroom does count in the overall m2 but does NOT count when they are deciding how many 'apartments' the house has.!

If you don't mind my asking, is it the square meterage they look at for banding purposes? Do you know what significance is attached to number of "apartments"?

I've just put in my own rebanding request, so would appreciate any insight

lincroft1710

elonii wrote: »

If you don't mind my asking, is it the square meterage they look at for banding purposes? Do you know what significance is attached to number of "apartments"?

I've just put in my own rebanding request, so would appreciate any insight

Not certain about the SAA, but the VOA use size rather than number of rooms. Of course house type and location also feature prominently