UNFAIR RATES ON ANNEXES

galaxygal

Hello 

Do you have a "Granny Annex" which is Rated separately?  Potentially, you are sitting on a financial time-bomb!

Annexes are often Rated separately; generally if they have both bathroom and kitchen facilities, which deems them to have the "potential" to be a "separate dwelling" in the Rates Valuation Office Agency's inflexible definition.

While the Annex is occupied by a relative (or person eligible for Rates exemption) there are no Rates to pay, but when that person no longer lives there, you may be hit with a huge annual Rates bill - despite the fact you have been saving the State a fortune as a Carer!!!!!

Our Local Authority - Sefton - will not allow us to sub-let or sell the Annex, under its Local Plan.  And if the Annex was empty we would be liable to pay 150 - 200% of the Annex's Rates   - on top of our own Rates for the main house. 

Case law confirms that you can't even revert to the prior use of the building, eg a garage, or remove the bathroom / kitchen facilities because there remains the "potential" for the Annex to be a separate dwelling -  And all this is contradicted by Local Authority rules that PREVENT it from being treated as such, and let or sold.  For the VOA, all hangs on the word "potential", however illogical that is, or however you may wish to use  / not use your own Annex.

When I first realised these unfair and contradictory anomalies and charges, I approached my then MP, but we got no where. I believe this situation needs a full campaign and a high profile champion for families who are shouldering the practicalities and costs of caring for their loved ones.

My situation is that when my Dad passed away, my husband and I realised Mum wouldn't be able to cope practically or financially at home, and so we applied for planning permission and extended / converted our garage into a lovely home for my Mum, technically an "Annex".  It gives Mum independence plus the support she needs from my family:  Mum is immobile and has a catalogue of health problems; had she still been at home, she would have needed daily Local Authority funded Carer visits plus various home  / mobility adaptations.  We are saving the State thousands a year.  Mum has been with us for 10 years and, because of this loving, semi-independent living arrangement, she will live happily with us for many, many more years.

We are happy to shoulder many of the costs associated with the initial conversion and the on-going bills, and caring for Mum, however, we feel angry about the future penalties we will face because we have given my Mum a home within our home. 

*******There must be thousands of families affected by these anomalous and unfair rules, families too busy with day to day caring to even look into this complex situation, let along take on the mighty VOA or Local Authority.  I wonder, is there a champion our there for these caring families?******

Please let me know if you are affected.

Kind regards

deedee71

By rates do you mean Council Tax or is the Annex taxed as non-domestic?  Have you asked your local council to confirm in writing your options/obligations when the annex is empty (hopefully not for a long time).

mjm3346

"Do you have a "Granny Annex" which is Rated separately?  Potentially, you are sitting on a financial time-bomb!
you may be hit with a huge annual Rates bill "

Unless it is a massive annex with a very high council tax banding it will not be a huge annual bill.
The simplest way to deal with this and remove a layer of red tape is to withdraw the concession in the first place 

lincroft1710

The vast majority of annexes are Band A. Also Council Tax banding of annexes has been ongoing since the start of CT in 1993 so it is well established and there has been much subsequent case law which has set out the criteria which the VOA are obliged to abide by.

When an annex is no longer needed it is not difficult to convert it so that the VOA will accept it is no longer an annex. If the CT payer and VOA disagree on what needs to be or has been done then an appeal can be made to the independent Valuation Tribunal. I'm ex VOA and know of plenty of cases where a self contained annex has been merged back into the main dwelling. If this is not practical or the owner wishes to keep the annex, a 50% discount on the CT bill is given where the annex is occupied by the resident of the main dwelling. Not all councils will prohibit an annex being let out, but most planning conditions will not allow it to be sold separately from the main dwelling.

If your mother was living in her own home as opposed to an annex, she would have had to pay CT, but currently living in an annex, she doesn't pay anything. If she had  owned her own home and subsequently gone into care, her home would have been sold to pay for her care.