Council Tax change after buying home

Hallux

A hell of a lot of people choose not to have a survey.  It is expensive and adds to the already very high cost of moving home. There is no guarantee that the surveyor will be competent, diligent or prevent you from having future issues and problems. Then you lose out even more or face the daunting prospect of suing the surveyor and legal costs.  It is a reasonable choice especially when you are older and don't have long to live.  Therefore you are not just calling me "foolhardy" but millions of others who makes this choice.  Not appreciated! 

Maskface

Hallux said:

A hell of a lot of people choose not to have a survey.  It is expensive and adds to the already very high cost of moving home. There is no guarantee that the surveyor will be competent, diligent or prevent you from having future issues and problems. Then you lose out even more or face the daunting prospect of suing the surveyor and legal costs.  It is a reasonable choice especially when you are older and don't have long to live.  Therefore you are not just calling me "foolhardy" but millions of others who makes this choice.  Not appreciated! 

Not sensible either to overstretch yourself so much that your only reason not to have a survey was to save costs, considering how badly that can backfire even in the short term. I know it's not what you want to hear but you didn't do your diligence properly and overstretched yourself, it's really that simple. I'd be interested to see your statistics that millions of people choose not to have a survey on what will be the most important purchase in their lives because it adds to the costs of buying a house. It is an enormous risk  and not having a survey just to save a bit of money IS foolhardy when you consider the potential ramifications. Pointing that out isn't a personal remark either, it's stating the obvious.

macman

Hallux said:

Rodders53 said:

I'm afraid you didn't do your due diligence properly.

When we moved home last time one of the (many) things I checked was the Council Tax band, if there was an "improvement indicator".  I also checked whether there had been Planning consents on the property (and in the local area for Developers building new homes)...

All especially relevant careful as we were moving hundreds of miles...

As for Council Tax rebate on the old Band D home:  you simply weren't living there on April 1st this year (the qualifying date) so don't get it for that property. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/council-tax-rebate-factsheet#will-i-be-eligible-for-the-council-tax-rebate
If your new home is currently Band D you will get it IF the band doesn't change, despite the improvements made.  If it is, or changes to, band E or above, you won't qualify.  

It was your choice to (over)-stretch yourself financially and move, taking some (risky) shortcuts.  In five or ten years the pain will have lessened and you'll look back on a lot of fuss over something relatively trivial in the grand scheme of life and home ownership.

I wish you and yours well and truly hope you will enjoy your new home.

It's easy I suppose to check on an "improvement indicator" if you know it exists - I didn't.  There was nothing apparent and no one gave me a clue that it did or that something so unexpected could happen many months later .. apart from those employed who I was relying on who work in this field - I don't.  I'd never heard of such a thing and hadn't moved for over 30 years.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

 I have no regrets whatsoever about anything I did based on our circumstances, goals and resources.  Although I took a calculated risk not paying for a survey that still doesn't make anything and everything ok.  I always refine my checklists and learn from experience and avoid slipping up on anything twice.

If the council tax band changes it will still be costing us in 10 years time.  Thanks for the good wishes.

But you didn't need to know that. All you needed to do was to check the CT band and you would have seen it showing up. perhaps a one minute search online.
I would never trust a CT banding supplied by an EA or vendor alone, when it's so easy to check. 

InThrees

We received a similar such letter recently.  Our banding was then moved from B to D due to improvements made by previous owner.  We weren't given any indication by our conveyancer (and I didn't know to check myself, although now obviously a lesson learned).

lincroft1710

Hallux said:

A hell of a lot of people choose not to have a survey.  It is expensive and adds to the already very high cost of moving home. There is no guarantee that the surveyor will be competent, diligent or prevent you from having future issues and problems. Then you lose out even more or face the daunting prospect of suing the surveyor and legal costs.  It is a reasonable choice especially when you are older and don't have long to live.  Therefore you are not just calling me "foolhardy" but millions of others who makes this choice.  Not appreciated! 

I would seriously doubt that millions of people don't have surveys. Understandable if someone is purchasing a new build as they normally have a guarantee. But if a survey finds something serious such as the roof about to collapse or a possible subsidence or heave issue, it is obviously money well spent;


Surveyors have extremely expensive insurance policies so if they are sued, the wronged client can be paid. 

Hallux

Maskface said:

Hallux said:

A hell of a lot of people choose not to have a survey.  It is expensive and adds to the already very high cost of moving home. There is no guarantee that the surveyor will be competent, diligent or prevent you from having future issues and problems. Then you lose out even more or face the daunting prospect of suing the surveyor and legal costs.  It is a reasonable choice especially when you are older and don't have long to live.  Therefore you are not just calling me "foolhardy" but millions of others who makes this choice.  Not appreciated! 

Not sensible either to overstretch yourself so much that your only reason not to have a survey was to save costs, considering how badly that can backfire even in the short term. I know it's not what you want to hear but you didn't do your diligence properly and overstretched yourself, it's really that simple. I'd be interested to see your statistics that millions of people choose not to have a survey on what will be the most important purchase in their lives because it adds to the costs of buying a house. It is an enormous risk  and not having a survey just to save a bit of money IS foolhardy when you consider the potential ramifications. Pointing that out isn't a personal remark either, it's stating the obvious.

Despite providing context I was "obviously" looking for facts, information and experiences regarding council tax band only.
 
It was very sensible to overstretch ourselves because it's we got a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get the place we wanted and secured it.  I find your remarks arrogant, smug and 100% unhelpful and suggest you state the "obvious" somewhere elsewhere.

DE_612183

so it was a once in lifetime opportunity, but your complaining about botched jobs etc and think you've over-paid.
If you have over-paid it was a once in a life time transaction for the vendor!

Hallux

DE_612183 said:

so it was a once in lifetime opportunity, but your complaining about botched jobs etc and think you've over-paid.
If you have over-paid it was a once in a life time transaction for the vendor!

True, but they (botched jobs etc.) can be remedied and almost forgotten in a few years time.  Not getting the place we really wanted almost certainly would not be remedied.  If it had been entirely up to me I would have offered a lot less and happy to risk not getting it, but my wife might never forgive me if we lost the chance.

Hallux

As the previous resident has been on a lower band for 16 years it seems like discrimination to now put me on a higher band when the property has had no further changes (in fact a lot of the exterior has wood and has deteriorated).  People should be treated equally.  ?

liberty_lily

It's not discrimination, it's the way things are.

We sold a house eight years ago that we'd 'improved' by replacing a small, decrepit attached outbuilding with a slightly larger kitchen extension (as well as comprehensively refurbishing the rest of the 400 year old property that we'd purchased three years previously as an unfinished project). When we bought the house it was in council tax band C. We always felt this was low as the house was 2000+ sq ft with five bedrooms, 0.3 acre garden and in a fairly expensive part of the country.

Shortly after selling, the house was moved into council tax band E (up two bands), which seemed more a appropriate banding given the above factors. 

At no time during the sales process did we tell our buyers there was an improvement indicator on the property and nor did they ask...but it was there for all to see if they'd checked. Perhaps they did or their conveyancing solicitor told them. All I know is it would have been extremely unlikely to have deterred them from the purchase, because - like yourself  - they saw it as a once in a lifetime opportunity to buy a one off property.