Appeal council tax band

Jd843

Hi

I'm debating whether to appeal the council tax band of the house I've been renting for the last year. It's a two-bed terraced house and it's in band C. All but a couple of houses on my street are also band C, but some of these are much bigger than my house, e.g. three or four bedrooms.

I used the calculator on the site to estimate the value in 1991, and that put my house in band B. There are a couple of houses nearby that are very similar to mine and are band B. I don't think there's a chance that mine could go up rather than down, but there's a chance that my neighbours' bands might go up. I used the estimate calculator for their houses too, and some of them came out at band D. However, these estimates vary depending on whether I used the most recent sold values or ones from longer ago. Not sure what to do! Any advice?

lincroft1710

House price indices are inaccurate, so you may be in the correct band. Because there are only 8 bands, there will be a lot of different houses in the same band, some larger, some smaller Up to you if you want to ask for a band review (you are out of time to appeal)

Jd843

So I gave it a shot and got told that I didn't have enough evidence for them to consider investigating. They said evidence needed to include the following:

1. Evidence of identical, or very similar properties in your locality of your property, which are in a different band (exact addresses required)

2. Sales evidence in your locality, very close to the valuation date of 1 April 1991 (no more than two years either side of this date), which suggests your property might be incorrectly banded

3. Evidence that an error was made when your property was banded.

The first point is the easy one - there are quite a few houses nearby that are very similar to mine and are in a lower band.

The other two are tricky. How on earth am I supposed to find sales evidence around 1991? Or evidence that there was an error made?

lincroft1710

Jd843 wrote: »

The other two are tricky. How on earth am I supposed to find sales evidence around 1991? Or evidence that there was an error made?

With great difficulty as 1991 sales are not in the public domain and unless you can you prove all similar houses to yours were reduced and yours wasn't then you will struggle to find evidence of an error

Jd843

lincroft1710 wrote: »

With great difficulty as 1991 sales are not in the public domain and unless you can you prove all similar houses to yours were reduced and yours wasn't then you will struggle to find evidence of an error

The problem is, there aren't any two-bed houses on my street to use as evidence. I can, though, find nearby two-bed, and even three-bed houses (i.e. on adjacent streets) that are in a lower band than mine. Do you think this will be enough evidence?

lincroft1710

Jd843 wrote: »

The problem is, there aren't any two-bed houses on my street to use as evidence. I can, though, find nearby two-bed, and even three-bed houses (i.e. on adjacent streets) that are in a lower band than mine. Do you think this will be enough evidence?

Providing the houses in the next street are of a similar size, age and type and if your home is private built are not council built, then this may be sufficient evidence.

Jd843

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Providing the houses in the next street are of a similar size, age and type and if your home is private built are not council built, then this may be sufficient evidence.

I did just that, and they're going to review my band. Fingers crossed!