Council Tax Challenge at tribunal

theoretica

Is your neighbour willing to share the comparisons they used in their successful challenge?

What bands are other houses in the area that sold for around the same amount around the same time?

lincroft1710

jmmo20 said:

lincroft1710 said:

jmmo20 said:

In any case the VOA is quite full of it. I managed to find the floorplans for the newbuild they are comparing my house to. VOA claims it's a 3 bed room house of similar size. BS! It's a massive 4-bedroom-plus-studio house !! I'm quite outraged to be honest. It took us a lot of years saving for our first home now to be bundled up with a house that is significantly larger and more expensive. Why does the VOA claim it's a 3-bed when it's clearly a 4-bed?

Upload a plan of your house so we can compare. Also please avoid the emotion, it won't help your case.

I know.. not as detailed though 
Please see this

Yours definitely looks smaller

Jones254

I may be wrong but I thought council tax could only be increased if a transaction happens (sale) on the home if improvements or extensions have been made. 

jimbog

How does your band compare to others on the street?
https://www.gov.uk/council-tax-bands

jmmo20

jimbog said:

How does your band compare to others on the street?
https://www.gov.uk/council-tax-bands

This area has very few new builds. Virtually all 3-bedroom homes in the street and nearby streets are tax band C or D, as this area used to be quite poor. It has gone up in value and prices over the last 30 years with the scientific development of the town.
Even within the same small development I live in, with a bunch of 8 other houses, they are all now tax band E even though they are virtually the same 3-bedroom 124 sq m except ours and my neighbour which are 129 sq.m 
Their houses are terraced and ours are 2 semi.. another difference is the garage, they don't have any but that shouldn't matter for tax band purposes.

I struggled to find 3-bed semi detacched properties around to justify the challenge. And then along came the VSO and matched my 3-bed property with a 4+ bed property, and they mistakenly reported that property as 3-bed. 

It's pretty easy to tell.. there are only 4 homes in that postcode they used and they are all the same.. (see floorplan above).

And I know I should keep emotion out of it but it seems pretty random that the VSO is being so difficult with our semi-detached homes while they've been fairly straight forward with my neighbours in the terraced homes. 

jmmo20

theoretica said:

Is your neighbour willing to share the comparisons they used in their successful challenge?

What bands are other houses in the area that sold for around the same amount around the same time?

Yes and in fact the funny thing is that I used the same examples. 
The only difference been they are a end-of-terrace and we are semi. But as I say almost same floor area, same receptions, same bedrooms, same bathrooms. In fact they have an additional studio that we don't have.

jmmo20

AdrianC said:

jmmo20 said:

but my house has an integral garage but this garage is not habitable (i.e. no insulation).
The house they are comparing mine with does not have a garage so all the "external area" is habitable.

My problem is that in the future if I decide to convert the garage to a 4th bedroom, VOA will want to increase my council tax!!

The only thing that CT is based on is the house value. If you're in England or Scotland, it's adjusted to a nominal date of 1st April 1991. If you're in Wales, 1st April 2003.

They know what your house last sold for when.
They know what values in your area did between the valuation date and that sale date.
Floor area isn't the primary determinant - value is.

The house the VSO is comparing mine to was sold in Jan 2017 for £680,000 
That's almost £150,000 more than my property which I bought in 2020. Presumably that house will be worth quite a lot more than 680K now 4 years later.

AdrianC

jmmo20 said:

Even within the same small development I live in, with a bunch of 8 other houses, they are all now tax band E even though they are virtually the same 3-bedroom 124 sq m except ours and my neighbour which are 129 sq.m 
Their houses are terraced and ours are 2 semi.. another difference is the garage, they don't have any but that shouldn't matter for tax band purposes.

You are hung up on floor area. That's NOT what it's based on. It's based on nominal value, based to 1991.

So a semi with a garage WILL be worth more than a terrace without. Blatantly obvious, right?

Band E is nominal 1991 value of £88-120k
Band F is nominal 1991 value of £120-160k

If the terrace were worth ~£110k in 1991, then - yes - a semi with garage would easily be worth more than £120k then. But if the terrace were £90k, then probably not.

So what were properties selling for around there in 1991...?

jmmo20

AdrianC said:

jmmo20 said:

Even within the same small development I live in, with a bunch of 8 other houses, they are all now tax band E even though they are virtually the same 3-bedroom 124 sq m except ours and my neighbour which are 129 sq.m 
Their houses are terraced and ours are 2 semi.. another difference is the garage, they don't have any but that shouldn't matter for tax band purposes.

You are hung up on floor area. That's NOT what it's based on. It's based on nominal value, based to 1991.

So a semi with a garage WILL be worth more than a terrace without. Blatantly obvious, right?

Band E is nominal 1991 value of £88-120k
Band F is nominal 1991 value of £120-160k

If the terrace were worth ~£110k in 1991, then - yes - a semi with garage would easily be worth more than £120k then. But if the terrace were £90k, then probably not.

So what were properties selling for around there in 1991...?

Haven't found much sales info from 1991.. but a 3-bed semi 20 metres from me sold for £190K in 2006

AdrianC

The only figure that matters is what YOUR house, as it sits now, where it sits, in the current condition, would have sold for in 1991.
Any other values, any comparable properties, are merely used to help to back-calculate that figure.