Has anyone successfully changed their council tax after the six month deadline ?

Julesf971

We brought a property in 2017 and found out last year that we are on the wrong banding and should be paying less . We phoned our local council and they said there was nothing we could do as we had not contacted them within the six months of moving in . Does anyone know anyway around this please ? We are paying several hundred pounds more then our neighbours. 

[Deleted User]

I got ours changed after about 10 years of living here and got a refund for that period, as well as being in a lower band going forward.  

Although there is a 6 month rule, its enforcement probably varies by council.

p00hsticks

You need to be speaking to the VOA rather than the local council.

There are circumstances where you can challenge a banding more than six months after you moved in. 

https://www.gov.uk/challenge-council-tax-band

If the property is obviously mis-banded (i.e. in a different band to all the identical neighbouring properties) then you don't really have anything to lose by drawing it to their attention even if you don't meet the criteria (although your neighbours might - it could result in theirs going up rather than yours coming down!)

lincroft1710

You can ask the VOA to investigate your CT band at any time but they will usually require you to provide them with the evidence that suggests the band is wrong. Using Zoopla calculated prices or Nationwide (for example) house price indices will probably be rejected by the VOA as both these are known to be inaccurate.

Being outside the 6 month time limit means that the VOA  decision is final and there is no recourse to the independent Valuation Tribunal.

Julesf971

Thanks all I shall definitely be contacting VOA x

zeewar

Deleted_User said:

I got ours changed after about 10 years of living here and got a refund for that period, as well as being in a lower band going forward.  

Although there is a 6 month rule, its enforcement probably varies by council.

Hi, did you challenge it based on identical properties to yours being on a different band? 

Ours has been extended and is no longer identical to any other properties in the area. An unextended property next to ours is worth about 1/5th less than ours but is two bands lower, we are on the same banding as properties which are twice the price of our own. I did speak to the VOA and they were quite dismissive said because the properties are no longer identical and they don’t go by current sale prices we would not be able to challenge our current banding. 

Any advice would be welcome. 

lincroft1710

zeewar said:

Deleted_User said:

I got ours changed after about 10 years of living here and got a refund for that period, as well as being in a lower band going forward.  

Although there is a 6 month rule, its enforcement probably varies by council.

Hi, did you challenge it based on identical properties to yours being on a different band? 

Ours has been extended and is no longer identical to any other properties in the area. An unextended property next to ours is worth about 1/5th less than ours but is two bands lower, we are on the same banding as properties which are twice the price of our own. I did speak to the VOA and they were quite dismissive said because the properties are no longer identical and they don’t go by current sale prices we would not be able to challenge our current banding. 

Any advice would be welcome. 

What band are you in?

zeewar

We are in band f our neighbours are in band d 

lincroft1710

zeewar said:

We are in band f our neighbours are in band d 

See if you can find houses nearby of the same type and size as yours currently is, in lower bands 

MACKEM99

When council tax  first came in our neighbour was not happy with their banding as they had checked with the electoral roll and found ours was lower than theirs.  Guess the result!!!!

lincroft1710

MACKEM99 said:

When council tax  first came in our neighbour was not happy with their banding as they had checked with the electoral roll and found ours was lower than theirs.  Guess the result!!!!

Yours was increased.