Council Tax - Is Property Comparison The ONLY criteria for reassessment ?

jdybnsn

I'll try &and keep this brief ! My property is in rural Mid Wales. I lived there on and off since 1989. I first lived there with my then partner and although my name wasn't on the mortgage there was a legal deed of trust on ownership between ourselves and I paid half of everything including council tax BUT my name wasn't on the bill. the property was banded D.
Fast forward my partner & split up 1993 and I took on the mortgage but hadn't realised that the banding had changed to an E for no apparent reason as there was no improvement to the property.. Public records still show the original banding
The property is detached but very small - no more than 80m2 floor space on 2 floors. It officially has 3 bedrooms but on bedroom is only big enough for a single bed and literally nothing else furniture wise (certainly not a bedroom by modern standards ! The others are a single and a very small double bedroom
It has never been properly assessed by the Council as it is not visible from the road and market valuation is misleading as it has 4 acres (but I believe land is not included in the council tax assessment).
My difficulty is that getting comparisons on similar properties nearby  is extremely difficult in terms of age and construction as it is such a rural setting and my property dates from the 1900 -  much of the surrounding area has either large farms or new bungalows.  
I put in an appeal that cited 5 properties with similar or larger foot prints but these were rejected as they were not a similar construction (most were newer - surely if they were newer shouldn't that give me more of a case ??). So my appeal was rejected though they have stated I can extend my property comparison to 10 miles - it still leaves me with a lot of work to do to find similar properties.
Does anyone know if property comparison is the ONLY way forward - why for instance do they not address why the banding was changed when my ex-partner moved out, and why the overall size of the property and other factors, hasn't seemed to have counted for anything ?

lincroft1710

Wales had a Revaluation in 2005, so the 1993 band is no longer relevant.


The current Band E is £123,001 to £162,000, so that means to be in Band E a dwelling must have been worth at least £123,001 as at ! April 2003. The Valuation Office Agency deal with banding not the council and your home should have been inspected by them between 1950 and 1990 when Domestic Rating was in force.


You can try and find 2003 property sales as they are in the public domain. I have explained comparisons in another thread


The land issue isn't straightforward. I'm ex VOA (but England). I remember where we had smallholdings of 4 to 10 acres and in those cases the method of valuation for CT purposes is complex. To cut a long story short, the value of a small parcel of agricultural land was quite high and using the formula for such valuations gave the dwelling a higher value than if it was a standalone.

jdybnsn

Thank you so much for your comments (on this and other threads)  - I bought my property from my ex partner for £5200o in 1993 and that included the 4 acres of land. I don't think it doubled on price from that point to 2003. But my problem is that it is so difficult to find comparisons in rural Wales within 10 mile radius - let alone 20 years ago  ! 
I just need someone to take a detailed look at the house on it's own merit  because I don't believe it should be band E.
What makes it worse is when I have though work left the area and tried to rent it out, I have found potential tenant after potential tenant has declined to rent it as the Council tax is just not in proportion to the size of the property..

lincroft1710

jdybnsn said:

Thank you so much for your comments (on this and other threads)  - I bought my property from my ex partner for £5200o in 1993 and that included the 4 acres of land. I don't think it doubled on price from that point to 2003. But my problem is that it is so difficult to find comparisons in rural Wales within 10 mile radius - let alone 20 years ago  ! 
I just need someone to take a detailed look at the house on it's own merit  because I don't believe it should be band E.
What makes it worse is when I have though work left the area and tried to rent it out, I have found potential tenant after potential tenant has declined to rent it as the Council tax is just not in proportion to the size of the property..

In England prices had more than doubled between 1993 and 2003, but I have no idea about about Welsh prices. Your purchase was not what was called an "open market sale" and possibly may be considered "not at arms length". In other words as the sale was a private transaction between two formerly connected people it cannot be regarded as good evidence of prices at that time and the inference would be that the figure is below true market value. So unfortunately it is not much help.


You could send internal and external photos of the house to the VOA, as I doubt they would be able to come and visit. As I have advised several people on this board you have just got to look and see what you can find. Perhaps look outside the 10 mile radius, it may give a result.

worrywart_3

I’m in a similar position but for my dad who has dementia because of this I now pay his bills his house is banded e, it’s a tiny two bed galley kitchen one sitting room old chapel with no garden in his lane he is surrounded by much larger houses all band d or c however there is no direct comparables at being such a one off property but I can’t see how houses twice the size with detached garages acres of land can be lower than his or that such a small house with no garden can be in band e. It’s impossible, he bought it over 49 years ago as did his neighbours east of it’s an estate house which it isn’t! I haven’t got time to drive round trying to find a similar chapel conversion if one even exists it’s in England. 

lincroft1710

worrywart_3 said:

I’m in a similar position but for my dad who has dementia because of this I now pay his bills his house is banded e, it’s a tiny two bed galley kitchen one sitting room old chapel with no garden in his lane he is surrounded by much larger houses all band d or c however there is no direct comparables at being such a one off property but I can’t see how houses twice the size with detached garages acres of land can be lower than his or that such a small house with no garden can be in band e. It’s impossible, he bought it over 49 years ago as did his neighbours east of it’s an estate house which it isn’t! I haven’t got time to drive round trying to find a similar chapel conversion if one even exists it’s in England. 

Just e-mail the VOA and ask them to explain why your father's house is in Band E, when other apparently larger properties are in Band D or even C. You will have to give addresses. There may  be good reason for it to be Band E or the band may be incorrect or the bands of the other houses may be incorrect

worrywart_3

lincroft1710 said:

worrywart_3 said:

I’m in a similar position but for my dad who has dementia because of this I now pay his bills his house is banded e, it’s a tiny two bed galley kitchen one sitting room old chapel with no garden in his lane he is surrounded by much larger houses all band d or c however there is no direct comparables at being such a one off property but I can’t see how houses twice the size with detached garages acres of land can be lower than his or that such a small house with no garden can be in band e. It’s impossible, he bought it over 49 years ago as did his neighbours east of it’s an estate house which it isn’t! I haven’t got time to drive round trying to find a similar chapel conversion if one even exists it’s in England. 

Just e-mail the VOA and ask them to explain why your father's house is in Band E, when other apparently larger properties are in Band D or even C. You will have to give addresses. There may  be good reason for it to be Band E or the band may be incorrect or the bands of the other houses may be incorrect

I have done they refuse to look at it without selling comparables which there aren’t any in the lane. No way could such a wee y house be a band e 

lincroft1710

worrywart_3 said:

lincroft1710 said:

worrywart_3 said:

I’m in a similar position but for my dad who has dementia because of this I now pay his bills his house is banded e, it’s a tiny two bed galley kitchen one sitting room old chapel with no garden in his lane he is surrounded by much larger houses all band d or c however there is no direct comparables at being such a one off property but I can’t see how houses twice the size with detached garages acres of land can be lower than his or that such a small house with no garden can be in band e. It’s impossible, he bought it over 49 years ago as did his neighbours east of it’s an estate house which it isn’t! I haven’t got time to drive round trying to find a similar chapel conversion if one even exists it’s in England. 

Just e-mail the VOA and ask them to explain why your father's house is in Band E, when other apparently larger properties are in Band D or even C. You will have to give addresses. There may  be good reason for it to be Band E or the band may be incorrect or the bands of the other houses may be incorrect

I have done they refuse to look at it without selling comparables which there aren’t any in the lane. No way could such a wee y house be a band e 

Look further afield for any sales you can find. If you can't find anything write to the MP for your father's constituency and ask them if they will intervene on your father's behalf