Council tax band 19 March 2022 at 4:07PM edited 1 April 2022 at 7:45AM in Reclaiming mortgage fees, council tax, etc 5 replies 174 views

[Deleted User]

Just looking for some (more) advise.

lincroft1710

Based on what you say, the VOA comparables do not seem very convincing. But I have no doubt they would not regard an older house as comparable. Surely there are other villages within a 10 mile radius.

lincroft1710

Deleted User said:

Thank you for your reply. Would you know the age range that they would accept? Is it + or - 10 years? Or being more rural, would they allow more? It's very hard to find out a properties age, unless I don't know where to look x 

Try from 1950s onwards, let them decide if they think it's not comparable. I think if you google you should find photos of houses from various decades to give you an idea of what you should be looking for.

lincroft1710

EPCs are not reliable. VOA measurements are 99% accurate, bearing in mind some properties may have extensions of which the VOA are unaware.


There are 3 methods of measuring property, Gross External Area, Gross Internal Area and Net Internal Area. The VOA  use GEA for houses and bungalows and NIA for flats and maisonettes. Estate agents and EPC providers may use different methods and neither are renowned for 100% accuracy.

lincroft1710

HPIs were about 10% out using 1990s/early 2000s sale prices, worst I came across was 20% undervalue. VOA do tend to disregard HPI evidence, but if that is all you have, you should still use it.

If you can photograph the houses and post on here I or other posters may be able to give you a rough idea 

lincroft1710

The place to look for land/property sales is the Land Registry. Rightmove/Zoopla will not necessarily have the correct information.

The HPI will not be accurate, but despite the inaccuracy, the true figure may be lower than £88,000.


It is doubtful if the VOA took much account of garden size when first banding the house and the current CT band would only.reflect what was there now. My personal observation was that garden size didn't tend to influence house prices until the late 1990s when newbuild plots started getting ridiculously small. A decent size 4 bed bungalow with an attached or detached garage would take up almost half of a 20m x 15m plot. In 1991 the loss of that land compared to what remained would have had a minimal effect on the sale price. 


From memory the only time my former colleagues or myself have ever reduced a CT band on plot size was on 4 (or more) bed detached houses which had been so over extended that hardly any garden remained and also the internal layout often left something to be desired. As unextended 4 (or more) bed houses of the same size were in the lower quarter of Band F, the extended houses would be reduced to Band E.


Unfortunately I don't think there is much mileage in the land issue.