council tax up due to alleged self contained flat

Section62

wilfred30 said:

I'd still be interested to know why they put a kitchenette up there in the first place but I think that a truthful answer to that is unlikely to be forthcoming 

To be fair to the OP's friend - and having spent the first 3 months of residence in my first house with the cooker in the lounge - I could see a case for installing a basic food prep area as part of a loft conversion project if you were planning a major renovation of the rest of the house and that involved the main kitchen being out of use for a significant length of time.

Also, if you are someone who spends a lot of time in a 2nd floor bedroom, having some basic food prep facilities so you can make a cup of tea or a snack without having to go down and then back up two flights of stairs might have some appeal.

But neither of those really tally with having installed it 5 years ago and never used it....

p00hsticks

Section62 said:

wilfred30 said:

I'd still be interested to know why they put a kitchenette up there in the first place but I think that a truthful answer to that is unlikely to be forthcoming 

But neither of those really tally with having installed it 5 years ago and never used it....

Nor how/why a neighbour would have been aware of the fact and - five years later - been sufficiently 'disgruntled' to report it to the VOA. As others have suggested, there is almost certainly more to this story than we (and possibly the OP) is being told.

wilfred30

Section62 said:

wilfred30 said:

I'd still be interested to know why they put a kitchenette up there in the first place but I think that a truthful answer to that is unlikely to be forthcoming 

To be fair to the OP's friend - and having spent the first 3 months of residence in my first house with the cooker in the lounge - I could see a case for installing a basic food prep area as part of a loft conversion project if you were planning a major renovation of the rest of the house and that involved the main kitchen being out of use for a significant length of time.

Also, if you are someone who spends a lot of time in a 2nd floor bedroom, having some basic food prep facilities so you can make a cup of tea or a snack without having to go down and then back up two flights of stairs might have some appeal.

But neither of those really tally with having installed it 5 years ago and never used it....

Exactly my point.

Personally, I don't believe for a minute that they spent all that money on creating a self-contained unit in the loft and then leaving it empty for 5 years.  Afterall, the OP's friend did lie to the Council about the kitchenette being temporary.

youth_leader

We converted four rooms in our house into a self contained holiday let.  It was accessible through our lounge, and also had an external door.  I only found out about it being liable for council tax on this forum when a similar post came up last year, and I'd already sold.  

Sandra2021

actually that is what happened as Section 62 says - at the time her kitchen and downstairs part of the house were uninhabitable due to the works going on because downstairs was being  renovated as well. The loft kitchenette was a life saver for the whole family and they literally moved up into the loft which  became their shared living room and kitchen dining area whilst works went on for months downstairs after the loft was completed. I think she liked the idea of having the kitchenette.

As  for neighbours - I don't know the story but believe she may have allowed some neighbours to view the works after it was all done so they would have had personal knowledge of works done before any subsequent falling out. Her motivation for the works I believe was to increae the value of the property.

Tokmon

Sandra2021 said:

actually that is what happened as Section 62 says - at the time her kitchen and downstairs part of the house were uninhabitable due to the works going on because downstairs was being  renovated as well. The loft kitchenette was a life saver for the whole family and they literally moved up into the loft which  became their shared living room and kitchen dining area whilst works went on for months downstairs after the loft was completed. I think she liked the idea of having the kitchenette.

As  for neighbours - I don't know the story but believe she may have allowed some neighbours to view the works after it was all done so they would have had personal knowledge of works done before any subsequent falling out. Her motivation for the works I believe was to increae the value of the property.

So first you say they never got round to using it and now your saying about them using it for months while works were being done in the rest of the house. 

To me this sounds like your just saying this so it sounds like there was a good reason why it was put there in the first place. Considering how you ignored many posts about why it was put there in the first place before posting this and said you friend lied to the council about it temporary i agree with other posts on here there is definitely more to the story than what is being said on here. 

I'm not saying your lying because your friend could just be feeding you all these tales to see if you can help them find out a way to avoid paying two lots of council tax.

Sandra2021 said:

Can someone help please - friends did a loft conversion about five years ago  and had a tiny kitchenette area installed whilst work was going on plus shower toilet - all on the third floor.
They never actually got around to using it - it's been empty all that time but they delayed removing the kitchenette area after all the works had been done and it just got left in there.
The council wrote to them alleging change of use to self contained flat.
Can it be appealed? thank you

lincroft1710

Sandra2021 said:

lincroft710 said "There is a possibility that the CT band on the main house could increase when the flat is merged back " - I had thought from my own understanding that CT couldnt go up until property is sold ?

As stated above, not entirely sure yet what she will do anyway .

There would be a merger of 2 dwellings (main house and flat), so a "new dwelling" would be created and with a "new dwelling" everything is taken into account. For CT purposes whenever there is a split or a merger it creates new dwellings which have to be valued as they stand on date of becoming a new dwelling.