Help!! Do I have a leg to stand on with the council tax?
Jellycat1957
Forumite 1 Post
Hi All,
I'll get straight to the point..basically I purchased a house back in January 2019 with the intention of renovating it. It's a totally delict house, meaning severe damp, movement, unsupported chimney stack, no hot water or heating throughout the property etc. We got plans drawn up and then sent them off to the council, that was around April 2019.
I was paying the council tax of £140 a month normally up until November 2020 when the council sent me a letter saying that the property was going to be charged "Empty Property Tax" which would take our payment to nearly £300 a month. I objected to this as the plans were STILL in with the planners and I thought it was unfair to charge us this as the property was in such a state of disrepair and it had only got worse as nothing had been done to the property in this time. The council replied to me saying basically no and that if i want to appeal the decision I'd have to do that and gave me the details of the Valuations Office. I did reply back to them stating again that they are being unreasonable as it's their fault it's taking so long. I did what she said and started the appeals process against the council but due to COVID I was told I would be waiting at least 6 month for a reply!!
In February 2021 the council refused our plans even though we did everything they asked. We were then advised by our architect to appeal it as we did everything they said, so the appeal process started for that in the same month (so Feb 2021). By this time I had already started paying the "Empty Property Tax" which was a real struggle. March came and the new Council Tax Bill came in and we were due to pay and even £300 per month, begrudgingly I paid whilst hoping to god that the appeal would go through soon.
By end of August 2021 are appeal was allowed! YAY!!! I also got a call from the Valuations Office about the "Empty Property Tax" and said there would be a hearing at the beginning of October!! Another YAY!!
The hearing day came and we were appointed a lady who told us what was going to happen throughout the hearing. To cut a long story short we were denied any refund. They said that they agree with me but the law doesn't allow for exemptions whether it be a council holding up your plans or COVID! At the end, the lady who we'd been appointed said you can apply to have you house de-listed...we weren't sure what she meant so asked for further information but basically as our property was in such a state of disrepair we could have it taken off of the banding list all together, until the property is ready to be lived in. Whilst this was absolutely fantastic news there is a catch, you can only claim one months worth of council tax back.
Now I feel that the council should have bought this information to my attention back in November 2020, as I had explained over 2 emails how bad the property was. I do feel like they kept this quiet so I would continue paying this ridiculous sum of money for a 2 up 2 down property.
Do you think I have ANY chance of claiming my money back from November 2021? Has anyone been through something similar?
Sorry it's a long post, thanks for reading :-)
I'll get straight to the point..basically I purchased a house back in January 2019 with the intention of renovating it. It's a totally delict house, meaning severe damp, movement, unsupported chimney stack, no hot water or heating throughout the property etc. We got plans drawn up and then sent them off to the council, that was around April 2019.
I was paying the council tax of £140 a month normally up until November 2020 when the council sent me a letter saying that the property was going to be charged "Empty Property Tax" which would take our payment to nearly £300 a month. I objected to this as the plans were STILL in with the planners and I thought it was unfair to charge us this as the property was in such a state of disrepair and it had only got worse as nothing had been done to the property in this time. The council replied to me saying basically no and that if i want to appeal the decision I'd have to do that and gave me the details of the Valuations Office. I did reply back to them stating again that they are being unreasonable as it's their fault it's taking so long. I did what she said and started the appeals process against the council but due to COVID I was told I would be waiting at least 6 month for a reply!!
In February 2021 the council refused our plans even though we did everything they asked. We were then advised by our architect to appeal it as we did everything they said, so the appeal process started for that in the same month (so Feb 2021). By this time I had already started paying the "Empty Property Tax" which was a real struggle. March came and the new Council Tax Bill came in and we were due to pay and even £300 per month, begrudgingly I paid whilst hoping to god that the appeal would go through soon.
By end of August 2021 are appeal was allowed! YAY!!! I also got a call from the Valuations Office about the "Empty Property Tax" and said there would be a hearing at the beginning of October!! Another YAY!!
The hearing day came and we were appointed a lady who told us what was going to happen throughout the hearing. To cut a long story short we were denied any refund. They said that they agree with me but the law doesn't allow for exemptions whether it be a council holding up your plans or COVID! At the end, the lady who we'd been appointed said you can apply to have you house de-listed...we weren't sure what she meant so asked for further information but basically as our property was in such a state of disrepair we could have it taken off of the banding list all together, until the property is ready to be lived in. Whilst this was absolutely fantastic news there is a catch, you can only claim one months worth of council tax back.
Now I feel that the council should have bought this information to my attention back in November 2020, as I had explained over 2 emails how bad the property was. I do feel like they kept this quiet so I would continue paying this ridiculous sum of money for a 2 up 2 down property.
Do you think I have ANY chance of claiming my money back from November 2021? Has anyone been through something similar?
Sorry it's a long post, thanks for reading :-)
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Replies
Have the Valuation Office Agency now removed the property from the Valuation List and if so what is the effective date, as that is the date on which your CT liability ends.
I doubt there is any legislation which compels a council to inform CT payers of procedures which are outwith a council's control. In many cases the VOA will not remove a property from the VL. I'm ex VOA and probably refused more requests to remove than agreed to.
One last thing you should be aware of is that once the property is brought back into the VL it can be assigned a higher CT band that the one it had before removal.