Council Tax Banding

cauldron

I’ve been trying unsuccessfully in the past to challenge my council tax banding. I provided a lot of evidence from when our house was built to show it was built to the same specification as houses in the lower band. They still disagree. That calculator on the site shows that the property should be in a lower band, but not sure how accurate it is as I can’t use that as evidence. 

I am due to have some home improvements to my house very soon. This should create an improvement marker on our council tax entry, so the banding may go up on the sale of the house. Does the marker only get triggered on the sale, or would it get triggered if I tried to take things further? Or do they go by what the house was like on the purchase date?

I guess if they were wrong and not looking at my case properly then it will become evident on the sale of the house. I should have queried this years ago really! 

lincroft1710

The marker will get triggered on the sale. All the VOA will do after the sale is to decide if the alterations warrant a  band increase, based on the physical state of the house at that date. They will not check if the pre alteration house's band was too high.

Maudsy22

I'd forget this. It's all stacked up to stop you getting a valuation from 1991. Historically house prices in 1995 had recovered the loss seen between 1991 and 1995 so anything from 1995 should be accurate. I have a valuation from my neighbour's house, identical in every fashion from 1995 which is below the band D and should be in Band C. Council will not accept it. If anyone can find an accurate source please post but you'll need more time than I have to dedicate to it. 

lincroft1710

Maudsy22 said:

I'd forget this. It's all stacked up to stop you getting a valuation from 1991. Historically house prices in 1995 had recovered the loss seen between 1991 and 1995 so anything from 1995 should be accurate. I have a valuation from my neighbour's house, identical in every fashion from 1995 which is below the band D and should be in Band C. Council will not accept it. If anyone can find an accurate source please post but you'll need more time than I have to dedicate to it. 

In most areas, 1995 house prices were still well below those of 1991. It wasn't until 1996 they began to rise, so it's not surprising your neighbour's 1995 price is below the Band D minimum