Alteration to an entry in the valuation list - back dating

clairvet

I took over a property in 2015 - a house with a cottage, receiving council tax as a single property. In 2020, I was sent a "notice of alteration to an entry in the valuation list" because it was a single dwelling and should be shown as two with separate bands. They backdated it to 2011, but then adjusted their bills to the date I took over the property. I don't understand how they get to back-date council tax and I cannot find out anything about councils doing this online. They have been refusing to answer my question about why they should back-date it - they suggested that I should contact the Valuations office. When I did that they told me that the effective date was provided by the council... I don't mind paying it moving forward, AFTER their decision to separate and charge separately. But I clearly cannot back date decisions I have made about the property - like renting it out for example because no-one in their right mind would pay for something they can't have because it was in the past... 

Is it legal for them to back-date council tax and then not bother to justify it? I have been asking for 11 months, and I now have a court summons... They are also not changing the bills to recognise that there were only student residents in the property since July 2018 - I have sent exemption certificates but they never seem to do anything with them. I do not intend what I do not owe just because they threaten me with a court summons. I have had to seek legal representation which is now costing me money... Of course!

lincroft1710

As this is a "cottage" rather than part of the house converted or extended to form an "annex", the thinking has probably been that this would have been a separate dwelling under the now repealed General Rate Act 1967 and not a separate dwelling under The Council Tax (Chargeable Dwellings) Order 1992. Despite the fact the GRA 1967 was repealed, it is still lawfully referred to.


The cottage has probably been backdated to the date it was renovated back to a habitable dwelling. Only the VOA can change the effective date. The council can lawfully backdate a bill to the date you became the "occupier" of the cottage, i.e. the date you became the owner of the cottage and thus entitled to occupy the cottage. 


Regarding the student occupation since 2018, you should try to speak to a Senior Revenues Officer (or similar) at the council. Unless your legal representative is an expert on CT legislation, you are wasting your money

CIS

clairvet said:

I took over a property in 2015 - a house with a cottage, receiving council tax as a single property. In 2020, I was sent a "notice of alteration to an entry in the valuation list" because it was a single dwelling and should be shown as two with separate bands. They backdated it to 2011, but then adjusted their bills to the date I took over the property. I don't understand how they get to back-date council tax and I cannot find out anything about councils doing this online. They have been refusing to answer my question about why they should back-date it - they suggested that I should contact the Valuations office. When I did that they told me that the effective date was provided by the council... I don't mind paying it moving forward, AFTER their decision to separate and charge separately. But I clearly cannot back date decisions I have made about the property - like renting it out for example because no-one in their right mind would pay for something they can't have because it was in the past... 

Is it legal for them to back-date council tax and then not bother to justify it? I have been asking for 11 months, and I now have a court summons... They are also not changing the bills to recognise that there were only student residents in the property since July 2018 - I have sent exemption certificates but they never seem to do anything with them. I do not intend what I do not owe just because they threaten me with a court summons. I have had to seek legal representation which is now costing me money... Of course!

The exemption issue needs to be looked at properly as to why they are not applying that to the property. Some councils are horrendous at communication in respect of what's going on. Ultimately the first instance decision is on the council and if it can't be resolved the valuation tribunal would be needed.

Council Tax is a specialist area of law and it is clear, as explained by Lincroft, that the VOA have a duty to ensure the records are correct, and the council then use these dates. One of the reasons they can backdate is to prevent people from deliberately concealing property to avoid tax - this might be different is there was a legal obligation to declare property, but there isn't.

clairvet

So an update. 

I was en route to court by train when my lawyer called to tell me that she'd managed to speak to the lawyer from the council. He was completely unaware that I'd submitted student exemption certificates, and of any other communications, and said that he would look into what was going on. It seems that Capita who manage the council tax for SODC, are just completely incompetent as suspected... The fact that a computer can send out a summons without anyone having oversight is completely beyond me, as is the fact that you have to get to court before actually getting to speak to anyone from the council! As far as the back-dating is concerned, the lawyer stated that the back-dating is from the Inland Revenue (?!), so we need to figure out what is going on there. My lawyer believes that the effective date should be the date of the alteration. 

Cheers for the input... Hearing postponed until 17th December... hopefully some humans will be involved from hereon in!

lincroft1710

clairvet said:

 As far as the back-dating is concerned, the lawyer stated that the back-dating is from the Inland Revenue (?!), so we need to figure out what is going on there. My lawyer believes that the effective date should be the date of the alteration. 

By Inland Revenue (which hasn't existed since 2005!) I presume the "lawyer" means the VOA which part of HMRC.  Unfortunately I believe the only time you can appeal an effective date, is when you appeal the Notice of Alteration.which it is now too late to do as there is a 6 month time limit on appeals.

To expand on what I said in my previous post it appears the VOA believe that if the GRA 1967 was still in existence the cottage would have had its own domestic rating assessment as would the main house. In fact this may well have been the case. If the VOA could be convinced that the cottage could not have fallen into this category then they would probably alter the effective date, but I don't know how you could persuade them. Perhaps if you could give us some info on the cottage, it would help in deciding if this is worth pursuing.

Fergie76

This the rules for my local council (a Scottish council):

"Where a banding error is discovered and a correction would result in the banding of the property increasing (and by extension the amount charged by the Council), the band is not increased retrospectively but only from the 1st of the month following the date the error was discovered.

Where a banding error is discovered and a correction would result in the banding of the property decreasing, the band is decreased from the correct date of change and any overpayment refunded."

lincroft1710

Fergie76 said:

This the rules for my local council (a Scottish council):

"Where a banding error is discovered and a correction would result in the banding of the property increasing (and by extension the amount charged by the Council), the band is not increased retrospectively but only from the 1st of the month following the date the error was discovered.

Where a banding error is discovered and a correction would result in the banding of the property decreasing, the band is decreased from the correct date of change and any overpayment refunded."

That is for a band increase/decrease (and applies to Scotland only, England and Wales are slightly different), the OP's problem is the effective date of a new dwelling.