Money Moral Dilemma: Should I challenge our council tax band if it means my neighbour may pay more?

LameWolf

If you can discover what the selling price for your home would have been in April 1991, you can check if you are in the right band.

The valuation band ranges for England are:

• Band A – Up to £40,000
• Band B – £40,001 to £52,000
• Band C – £52,001 to £68,000
• Band D – £68,001 to £88,000
• Band E – £88,001 to £120,000
• Band F – £120,001 to £160,000
• Band G – £160,001 to £320,000
• Band H – More than £320,000

So, for example, if your house or an identical house in the same area/street sold for, let's say £60,000 in April 1991, it would be in Band C.

I worked for the Valuation Office Agency when Council Tax was being brought in, btw.

lincroft1710

meknowalot-51 said:

I didn't think council band rates could be re-adjusted from the 1991 figures,after reading the replies on here it clearly can.As i see it,all you will achieve is causing your neighbour possible financial hardship,for what?.The council could end up re-assessing the whole area,they could all be bumped up,with the most ironic outcome is that YOUR moved up as well.Unless you have it on good authority that yours is going to be decreased with the others unadjusted(extremely unlikely),then leave well alone.

A CT band can be increased or decreased at any time if the VOA (not the council) believes it to be incorrect. It would highly unlikely for a whole area to be rebanded, but not impossible if it was found (for example) the houses on a new estate had been incorrectly banded, then the bands could be changed  

JayD

As others have advised here, please do some research. That is the only way you will have any idea about what band y9ou (and/or your neighbours) should be on. Similar properties, similar areas - and your neighbours too, should reveal the banding that applies to YOUR property. If you then believe you are being over valued, by all means challenge it.

lincroft1710

LameWolf said:

If you can discover what the selling price for your home would have been in April 1991, you can check if you are in the right band.

But as you and I both know that, firstly it is very difficult to access 1991 sales and secondly, as a percentage of the housing stock, there weren't that many arm's lengths sales in 1991.

lornfile

I would be inclined to write to all the neighbours asking whether they minded my challenge to my Council Tax Band. I would tell them that if even one of them objected, I would not go ahead.

lornfile

You actually can't rely on the selling price as a guide if the price had been artificially brought down from the true value to act as an incentive to buyers, especially if that selling price were exactly under the threshold! The Valuation Agency would still rely on the original valuation.

Bubbly_Blonde

MSE_Kelvin said:

This week's MoneySaver who wants advice asks...

We live in a four-bedroom semi-detached bungalow and are in council tax band D, which I'd never questioned. But recently my next-door neighbour told me she's in the cheaper band B, and her home has exactly the same layout. I'd love to claw back some council tax, but I'm worried that if I flag it, it might result in my neighbour's band being increased, which I don't want to happen. What should I do?

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Hi, I work in the Council Tax department of a local Billing Authority and a great deal of my work involves dealing with the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) whom form part of HMRC.  It is the VOA that maintains the Council Tax valuation list and decides on the bands.  I would say that a Band B would usually relate to a 2 bedroom flat or small property and the fact you have a 4 bedroom bungalow sounds about right for a Band D.  As others have said, you can enlarge your property without the band changing and it is only when the property is sold that a review would be carried out.  

What triggers the review is when the VOA are advised by the Billing Authority of any structural alterations which are obtained from the building control department within the Billing Authority.  Reports are issued to the VOA and also they may pick up info from other sources.  An improvement indicator is put against the valuation band and will sit there until there is a 'relevant transaction' i.e. a sale.

All band reductions will be backdated to when the property was first banded or when a previous change to band took place.  This means in some cases that the reduction will go back as far as 1 April 1993 when Council Tax was first introduced.

If there is an increase to a band it will not be backdated so the worse case scenario for your neighbour would be to have to start paying more going forward but hey - he's had the benefit of paying the lower amount for years!

As regards the credits on all those previous occupants accounts -that headache is left to the Billing Authority to sort.  I do my best to try and reunite people with these overpayments but sometimes the credits are written off because they can't be traced.

To be honest it is a right pain, especially if they were in receipt of Council Tax Support as that would need to be recalculated as well.  Mine can't be the only Billing Authority that has merged with others over the years to form a new Council and therefore the old records are no longer held digitally and can't be easily recalculated.

So I would say go for it if you feel your valuation band is too high but you do risk causing an increase to your neighbours band.

kags

Whilst the layout of the two bungalows is the same, are the uses of the rooms the same?  I seem to recall my parents used to pay the equivalent of a Band lower than otherwise due to having to have a step-free wet room for my disabled mother to use.

lincroft1710

kags said:

Whilst the layout of the two bungalows is the same, are the uses of the rooms the same?  I seem to recall my parents used to pay the equivalent of a Band lower than otherwise due to having to have a step-free wet room for my disabled mother to use.

I think you will find that as your mother is disabled and had a special room constructed because of her disability, your parents' CT charge has a one band reduction, e.g. if their home was Band D, they would be charged as if it was a band C.

lincroft1710

lornfile said:

You actually can't rely on the selling price as a guide if the price had been artificially brought down from the true value to act as an incentive to buyers, especially if that selling price were exactly under the threshold! The Valuation Agency would still rely on the original valuation.

The actual sale prices were what the VOA used to find the bands. Back in 1991 I bought a brand new house which was the only one of its type on the estate and the only one sold in 1991. The builders accepted my cheeky offer as it had been difficult to sell because of the garden shape and was the last house left unsold. The CT band was clearly based on my sale.


Only where there was a choice of sales would the VOA tend to ignore those which appeared too low,