Council Tax question

Steve_xx

CIS wrote: »

Yes
I spend all day dealing with council tax disputes and some councils do require a lot of arguing to get the point across - some are very good though (If there was no disagreement I'd not have a job !). The legislation is very straightforward in terms of what it requires and the council cannot introduce extra criteria or interpretation. If they decline an application then there is the valuation tribunal but in many cases, providing the initial issues are well considered, it can be sorted without the need for one.


The band reduction is in addition to any discount.

Your last paragraph makes it even more beneficial, potentially, to persue this. So in this case, might it be applied like this, if it was successful:

1. The banding is reduced one level lower
2. Then 50% reduction is applied to the remainder?

Also, many thanks for your valuable input here.

CIS

Steve_xx wrote: »

Your last paragraph makes it even more beneficial, potentially, to persue this. So in this case, might it be applied like this, if it was successful:

1. The banding is reduced one level lower
2. Then 50% reduction is applied to the remainder?

Also, many thanks for your valuable input here.

Yes- any discount is applied to whatever the relevant banding is.

Steve_xx

CIS wrote: »

Yes- any discount is applied to whatever the relevant banding is.

Excellent. Now, Auntie has been there since February of 2018 and their Council Tax Disability Band shift has certainly been applied for the whole of this council tax year. In light of the conclusions arrived at here, do you think that if they could now apply for all to be disregarded that they could ask for a 50% rebate to applied for the current year, retrospectively?

Aunts grandson applied to be a carer on March 10 2018 and was granted the allowance some three months later. So, at the time when the council person came, which I think was in March 2018, to the house to perform whatever assessment he did, there was no person receiving the carer allowance, but perhaps her daughter was regarded as the carer.

CIS

Disregards can be backdated but, again depending on the council, it can be either easy or a pain. Almost all of the cases that I have to take to tribunal usually involve some aspect of argument over backdating (at which point it becomes an argument of legislation & leading decisions etc)

Steve_xx

CIS wrote: »

Disregards can be backdated but, again depending on the council, it can be either easy or a pain. Almost all of the cases that I have to take to tribunal usually involve some aspect of argument over backdating (at which point it becomes an argument of legislation & leading decisions etc)

I understand. Many thanks for your help with this. It's provided a great deal of clarity. This is absolutely worth persuing going forward, even if there was no retrospective rebate. I will return with the results!

Tigsteroonie

I think the general consensus on the thread has been that it's worth aaking the question because the guidance is unclear

Steve_xx

Tigsteroonie wrote: »

I think the general consensus on the thread has been that it's worth aaking the question because the guidance is unclear

CIS feels that the guidance is clear, but that any given council's interpretation of the guidlines can, at times, be questionable.

CIS

Legislation is quite clear what the qualifying conditions are (there are only 4 conditions, each of which is laid out clearly) - the interpretation of undefined words in those conditions may be up for debate (e.g what exactly is 'providing care' - in most cases it's self evident but perhaps not in all cases, hence the need for recourse to a tribunal)



When it comes to disregards (and the associated discounts) there are no restrictions on how many can be applied to a property at any one time. The way council tax works is to determine the disregards and then work out what discount that gives - 25% or 50%.


Of course, the difference between what legislation says and how a council feel like implementing it can be two different things entirely - it doesn't mean the council have any leeway but in real terms you can't physically force them to make a competent decision in all cases (and again, this is why the tribunal and LGO exist).

668redress

If your aunt has a disability and in receipt of AA you may find the following website helpful
Welfare rights.net
The rule is ithat an individual who is in receipt of high rate AA even if they have non dependants living with them who are working this will not affect their housing or council tax benefits. AA is not means tested