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

crmism

You have good grounds to appeal against the Council's valuation and the band your home's been placed in, particularly as your accommodation is the same as your next-door neighbours. By the sound of things, there might well have been an administrative mistake somewhere along the line and having already determined your neighbour's tax band the Council is in no position to alter its ruling and should put your home in the same band.

primrose_penguin

I have also made a claim to have my banding reduced but don't think I am going to be successful, I live in a cottage with only 1 bedroom and I know some of the other houses in my street are on the same band as me and have 2 bedrooms and others in my town are on a lower band than me and have 2 bedrooms also, but unfortunately I can find no other cottage to compare ours to, which is one of the requirements.
You can check up what other houses bands are by going to the Government site - Check your council tax band Gov.uk. If you put in the postcode you can check what bands the other houses are on, and if you don't know the postcodes just look on Postcode finder, Royal Mail and enter the house numbers and roads and it will show their postcodes.
You have obviously had a conversation with your neighbour and she knows you are paying more than her, so I would firstly check the banding on other similar bungalows on your street and if they are less too you could let her know you are intending to make a claim, if however they are the same as you are paying then you will know that your neighbour will probably be facing an increase. 
I hope you will be successful if you claim - Good luck.

lincroft1710

crmism said:

You have good grounds to appeal against the Council's valuation and the band your home's been placed in, particularly as your accommodation is the same as your next-door neighbours. By the sound of things, there might well have been an administrative mistake somewhere along the line and having already determined your neighbour's tax band the Council is in no position to alter its ruling and should put your home in the same band.

Firstly it is the VOA who deal with CT banding, not the council.


Secondly, it has not been determined which bungalow has the wrong CT band. Bands can be too low as well as too high and it seems likely that the neighbour's bungalow could be too low. If it is found that the OP's bungalow is in the correct band, the band will not be reduced and it is probable the neighbour's band will be increased, which is what concerns the OP.  

DiggerDogs

I did precisely this.  I went to appeal and it was rejected and my neighbours, 3 of them, had an increase.😱

tboo

DiggerDogs said:

I did precisely this.  I went to appeal and it was rejected and my neighbours, 3 of them, had an increase.😱

.... and that is the risk you all take. Martin L does crone on about it a lot.

I had to fight with the VOA to reduce mine, which took months. The only reason it was accepted was in the fact of a material change behind my property in 2006.

Ctax was refunded and the banding was reduced back to 1998.

tastyfish

Just challenge the council’s banding and see what they come back with. If an increased banding affects your neighbour then the real moral dilemma is that they have not been contributing their due share to funding local services for however long and should they be continuing to get away with it.

poodax

I know someone who queried their banding and the whole road got increased! They were all new houses so the valuation office had presumably done a 'desk' assessment. When asked to look again they went up instead of the anticipated down. Look online at the rest of the road to see what banding other houses are in and then decide.

584467

How do you check your Council Tax banding if you house is built AFTER 1991 as this seems to be the date when the banding was set up?

lincroft1710

584467 said:

How do you check your Council Tax banding if you house is built AFTER 1991 as this seems to be the date when the banding was set up?

Look at bands of other similar houses in the area