Housing association property and council tax banding

Fuzzycat93

I have read MSE's guide to reclaiming council tax if you think you may be in the wrong band. I noticed that it refers only to privately owned properties and not to social housing; I live in a 2 bedroom mid terrace house built in 2007 (we are the first tenants) owned by a housing association so I can't check what it has sold for. I'm in band D.

I looked on Zoopla and inputed the highest valuation they had guessed for my property on the Nationwide valuation tool. It said band C. I also checked my two next door neighbours on each side and they are both band D even though they are 3 bedrooms and we are 2. We live in a not particularly sought after area. Is there any likelihood of success in challenging this? How can I find out what the property has been valued at? I live in Scotland.

Norman_Castle

Being privately owned or social housing is irrelevant to council tax valuations.

lincroft1710

I am only familiar with English CT legislation, but for the most part the same applies in Scotland. Dwellings are never given a specific value but just allocated a band. In Scotland (English CT bands are different) Band D means that the Assessor believes your home would have sold for in excess of £45,000 but no more than £58,000 had it been for sale on the open market as at 1 April 1991.

It is quite possible for 2 and 3 bedroom houses to be in the same band as the 2 bed values could be at the bottom of the band and the 3 bed at the top.

lincroft1710

Norman_Castle said:

Being privately owned or social housing is irrelevant to council tax valuations.

In one respect it is actually relevant as houses on council/HA estates tend to sell for less money than similar ones on private estates, thus leading to possibly lower bands. In many areas council houses were allocated a band which was at least one band lower than a similar house on a private estate.

Fuzzycat93

I do think it's relevant because (in Scotland at least) the right to buy has been revoked, so unless there's a change in the law houses in my development will never be put up for sale. Thus there are no directly comparable homes to compare sale values with. There are plenty of ex-council houses, but they are 40-50 years old.