Should I try to get my Council Tax Band lowered?

greensmoker

Hello,
House was built in 2010.
We purchased in 2013 for £185,000
We're in Council Tax band C
Nationwide estimates in 1991 house would have been worth £76k.

We are number 1. All the odd numbers of the street are Band C and the even numbers - slightly smaller houses on the other side of the street are band B.

What do you think? Is it worth a try to get my band lowered to B?

Thanks in advance

D_M_E

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Always worth a try - they can only say no.

When you say "slightly smaller" - how much smaller, and were the band B ones built at the same time or years earlier?

greensmoker

Thanks for your quick reply.
Odd number houses have 5 bedrooms (though all tiny)
even numbers have 4 bedrooms and were built 5 years earlier. They are housing association.

ReadingTim

greensmoker wrote: »

Odd number houses have 5 bedrooms (though all tiny)
even numbers have 4 bedrooms and were built 5 years earlier. They are housing association.

Given the UK market works more on the number of bedrooms, rather than their size, or even total floor area, I don't think you'll have much success. I'd suggest the house styles, relative ages, even physical location (over the road from the others) means 2 different bands could be feasible.

Furthermore, as all the odd-numbered houses are consistently in the same band, and all the even-numbered ones in the other, I think you're on a hiding to nothing with this one.

Gers

I challenged the banding in our previous flat as the one directly below was in a lower band. As both had exactly the same footprint and layout (old converted Georgian townhouse) the difference was odd.

Of course the result could have been my neighbour's band being raised, however mine was lowered and an immediate refund of overpayment made by the local authority.

There is a thread about this somewhere here.

Shy bairns get nowt!

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=57747931&postcount=1494

lincroft1710

greensmoker wrote: »

Hello,
House was built in 2010.
We purchased in 2013 for £185,000
We're in Council Tax band C
Nationwide estimates in 1991 house would have been worth £76k.

We are number 1. All the odd numbers of the street are Band C and the even numbers - slightly smaller houses on the other side of the street are band B.

What do you think? Is it worth a try to get my band lowered to B?

Thanks in advance

That NW estimate puts your house in Band D

ReadingTim

Gers wrote: »

I challenged the banding in our previous flat as the one directly below was in a lower band. As both had exactly the same footprint and layout (old converted Georgian townhouse) the difference was odd.

Of course the result could have been my neighbour's band being raised, however mine was lowered and an immediate refund of overpayment made by the local authority.

There is a thread about this somewhere here.

Shy bairns get nowt!

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=57747931&postcount=1494

I had a similar experience to you - my Victorian terrace was in band c, the rest of the terrace was band b. I challenged it, it was lowered and I cashed the cheque. Thanks MSE - I read it here in 2006! But my house, like your flat, was an anomaly - a one-off in a higher band, surrounded by lower ones.

The OP's case isn't like that. Their house is in the same band as their immediate neighbours, whose houses are also the same. Different houses, on a different side of the road, are differently banded.

So, lovely as our little anecdotes are, they're irrelevant to the OP's situation.