Council Tax band is going up

idlDesign

I’m hoping someone has had a similar issue. I live in Scotland so I know the laws around this may be different than England and Wales.

We purchased our house in June 2018 and had done all of our various checks, especially around council tax. The house was converted from a bungalow to a two storey house by converting the attic space around 15 years ago. Since then, it was sold 4 times.

I know the law states that the purchaser immediately after the owner of a property that has been renovated by them can be subject to a change in council tax band but since this has been sold 4 times since this was done, why am I now having to pay for this?

Do I have any recourse here or will I just need to accept that it has gone up by 2 bands?

Hope you can help as we would never have bought it if we knew this would happen.

Thanks!

theartfullodger

Pleased to hear the council are ensuring people don't avoid paying what they should, even if a little late.

idlDesign

Don’t get me wrong, I agree that people should pay appropriate council tax. My issue is that we would never have bought the house if we knew that was going to happen. The fact is that we done all the necessary checks prior to buying it to ensure the renovations weren’t done by the previous owner which they weren’t

Comms69

idlDesign wrote: »

Don’t get me wrong, I agree that people should pay appropriate council tax. My issue is that we would never have bought the house if we knew that was going to happen. The fact is that we done all the necessary checks prior to buying it to ensure the renovations weren’t done by the previous owner which they weren’t

One of the risks of house ownership

theartfullodger

idlDesign wrote: »

Don’t get me wrong, I agree that people should pay appropriate council tax. My issue is that we would never have bought the house if we knew that was going to happen. ........

Simply checking for publicly available, free, CT rates of neighbouring houses would have probably told you: Odd nobody bothered - or did they?

idlDesign

All my neighbours are on the band we were previously on (unless they have been subject to the change as well) but the styles and sizes of the houses are so varied that it was impossible to really tell. According to some sources I’ve checked today there should have been a kind of flag to say it might be subject to a revaluation so I’ll check with my solicitor tomorrow

00ec25

idlDesign wrote: »

The fact is that we done all the necessary checks prior to buying it to ensure the renovations weren’t done by the previous owner which they weren’t

the fact is you did (past tense of to do) not do all the "necessary" checks, otherwise you would have considered the fact that the CT had not changed, yet you knew it should have done so given the facts, and therefore should have been questioning why not ....

AdrianC

Did it have the Improvement Index flag when you put the offer in?

lincroft1710

If the new CT band reflects the 1991 value of the property in its present state, then it is correct. There is no recourse, the Assessor is charged with ensuring dwellings within his area are correctly banded, which he appears to have now done in respect of your home.