Could we get rebanded?

mjmorgan

Our Rented property backs onto a local primary school. We moved here in early 2006 and didn't know there had been planning permission granted for the school to be redeveloped.

Work commensted in Sept and the area directly at the back of our property (the old school playground) was cleared. As the buliding is going up its becoming quite obv that any view we currently have is going to soon disappear. The new buliding is literally right at the end of our garden and once its complete I am wondering if this new building will mean we can get a deduction in our council tax banding. How exactly do I go about getting the council to review our banding.... what is the likelyhood it would be rebanded? Does it matter that we aren't the owners?

The 'new' school will be 2 stories high, so we feel it will be quite imposing upon our rented house and our back garden.

Thanks inadvance

guppy

Firstly, it doesn't matter if you own or rent. As long as you are the taxpayer.

You can make an appeal against your council tax band if there have been physical changes in your area which could affect the value of your property.

This page explains:

http://www.voa.gov.uk/council_tax/can_i_appeal.htm

Any band reduction wouldn't be automatic, you need to prove (or it needs to readily apparent) that the value would be affected enough to change the band applicable.

Its probably best to wait until both storeys are built, then the impact will be most obvious.