2 bedroom chalet bungalow classified as 5 bedroom

Jibber123

We moved house in 2016 and everything was a little hectic to start with. After a month or so we had a letter from the council saying they would increase our council tax band i think it was from E to G as it was originally 2 bedrooms and now had 5. I spoke to my dad who advised that as we were looking to apply for planning permission in the near future it might not be a good idea to upset the council, so i accepted it and carried on. Now 3 years later change of circumstances and we are no longer going to extend and i think the council tax band is a little unfair. The property was original built as a 2 bed bungalow and the previous owner who we brought it from in 2016 had had a single story extension put on the back with the kitchen in and then fitted a stair case and converted the loft space into 3 bedrooms and a landing. One of the upstairs loft bedrooms the maximum ceiling height is 1.65m and it slopes down steeply each side so it's almost impossible to stand up in there. The 2nd loft bedroom has about 1.8m ceiling height for about 0.5m width down the center and then slopes away steeply and. the 3rd loft room has about 1.9m ceiling height for a 1m width down the center and is not quite a steeply sloping. The landing is a little awkward as there are roof slopes but you can stand up in the middle and the ceiling height is nearly 2m in the centre. The stair are also very narrow and steep and have a tight turn half way up with limited head room part of the way up. We only use the landing upstairs for the computer desk and filing cabinet etc and the 3rd upstairs loft room ( the largest 1) is a spare bedroom if we have a guest to stay but most of the time it's just got stuff stored in there. The other 2 loft rooms are just used for storage basically like a loft. I've read through some building regs around converting loft rooms etc and i don't think at least 2 of our rooms are classified as habitable space, the largest room is border line, and the stair case doesn't meet building regs as it's too narrow, steep and has limited head room. With this in mind do you think i can argue the case for the council to lower our council tax band? I don't think they can make me remove the upstairs rooms if they don't comply with building regs, as if we are only realy using the space like a loft, who's to say we can't make it nice up there and board it out paint it and carpet it, it's still a loft at the end of the day, just not bedrooms?

Caz3121

Jibber123 wrote: »

The property was original built as a 2 bed bungalow and the previous owner who we brought it from in 2016 had had a single story extension put on the back with the kitchen in and then fitted a stair case and converted the loft space into 3 bedrooms and a landing.

did you purchase it as an extended 2 bedroom property with loft storage or as a 5 bedroom property? - how was it advertised?

DigForVictory

Get the council definition of a bedroom & check.
Then try to get re-valued.

CIS

The council definition makes no difference - its the Valuation Office (England & Wales) or the Scottish Assessors who make the decision on banding, the council have no say in the matter.

As you've had the property more than 6 months then all you can do is to ask them to review the band, the period in which you can formally appeal has passed.

lincroft1710

Before your home was rebanded it should have been inspected and therefore the limited headroom should have been noted and valued accordingly (VOA generally ignore anything with less than 1.5 m headroom). VOA do not pay much attention to number of bedrooms, primarily using a dwelling's gross external area to ascertain the notional 1991 value and thus CT band.

You can ask for a band review, but you must give substantial reasons, otherwise VOA will just dismiss it out of hand

Jibber123

It was advertised as a 5 bedroom chalet bungalow, but as soon as we saw it we discounted the upstairs rooms as virtually unusable. We've got friends that run an estate agents in the village and they said they can pretty much put down what they want on the sales advert, within reason and subject to the owners agreeing. Our first house had a conservatory on the advert, but it was actually an aluminium greenhouse someone had put against the back of the house in front of the patio doors, fixed to the house with 4 screws. The main selling point for our new house was the large plot of land that came with it, it sounds silly but the property was really a bonus in our eyes. Interestingly the chap we brought it from had 4 kids and the whole family was well over 6 foot tall, I've no idea how they managed in the loft rooms, must have had constant headaches. As i said we don't really need the upstairs bedrooms as we've only got 2 kids who share a room downstairs at the moment and we were looking at converting a ground floor reception room into 3rd bedroom downstairs for when they get older. I'm just looking for peoples opinions on weather it was worth trying to get the band lowered as it will save a considerable amount over the course of a few years especially if we can get it lowered 2 bands back to what it was when we brought it.

lincroft1710

Jibber123 wrote: »

Our first house had a conservatory on the advert, but it was actually an aluminium greenhouse someone had put against the back of the house in front of the patio doors, fixed to the house with 4 screws.

Many early conservatories were little more than lean to greenhouses minus the 4th wall (where it was attached to the house) so not really a misleading description


I'm just looking for peoples opinions on weather it was worth trying to get the band lowered as it will save a considerable amount over the course of a few years especially if we can get it lowered 2 bands back to what it was when we brought it.

You may get it lowered by 1 band (and I stress may), but it is extremely unlikely to be reduced by 2 bands.

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