Council tax band challenge, which houses to compare to

andy29_2

Hi, so we were hoping to start a challenge to our tax band - it's an estate of 4-bedroom houses, and most built to the same original design as ours have now had some sort of extension put on. Our extension is one of the earliest and smallest. Most are just a little bigger than ours but a few are relatively huge two story, extra bedrooms and en-suite bathroom additions, plus their conservatories which we don't have, if it matters. All of the houses are band D, except for us in band E together with a couple of those big ones. I think we got caught out by the drive-by valuations because ours was built before 1991 so I'm worried that'll cause problems.

I know that the VOA want us to point out up to five other houses of the same size, type etc. in a lower band, which we can do easily. But since they say they'll also look at ones that are bigger, is it still correct to be ignoring those bigger ones in the lower band? Is it best to stick with the ones of a much closer size to ours in the lower band? It does feel like talking about the big ones would increase the chance that they just get brought up to meet our band.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I'm in England.

lincroft1710

If any of the extensions were carried out by the current owners then the bands can't be increased until the houses are next sold.


Obviously pick out the houses most similar to yours in Band D

andy29_2

Thanks, ah ok, I did think their bands only went up when they were sold but didn't know if I'd understood it right.

I only wondered if it would help to mention some similar and some large ones as it would highlight the big range of sizes that are included in band D here, while somehow ours is taken as having a value above the top end of those.

But maybe that's irrelevant and I'm overthinking it. If it must or should really be similar houses then I'll stick with the similar ones.

I forgot to mention that I'm in England, too.

andy29_2

Do the VOA use the land registry sale data to help with their decision? Because some of the data on that website about houses around here being terraced, detached or semi-detached seems wrong to me, and that would cut out a lot of the houses we could mention.

Also, is ours (and next door) right to be down as detached, because it goes us-garage-garage-them, except we have a person-wide gate which separates our house from our garage. But our garage, their garage and their house are all connected. Others which are identical but without that gate are down as semi-detached which makes sense.

lincroft1710

The VOA have sales information on virtually every property that has been sold, provided either by the Land Registry or the Stamps Office. 1991 sales info would not state if property was detached or semi etc.

I have worked in 3 VOA offices and dealt with dwellings from 3 others. All would class both you and your neighbour as detached. Where next door's garage was attached to an otherwise detached house, then that house would be classed as link detached. The rule tended to be unless the living accommodation was attached to the property (or part of the property) next door then it was detached.

andy29_2

Thanks again, it's useful to know. I did wonder about what link detached was but none of the houses in the road are down as that.

If you don't mind me asking - I'm confused about how some houses in the road are described. It seems like a significant thing for giving evidence to the VOA but please correct me if I'm wrong.

Below is our house and some others in another part of the road. They're all identical 2-storey 4-bedroom houses. The Land Registry descriptions are from the latest sales in the price paid dataset at https://landregistry.data.gov.uk/app/ppd/ .

How is number 4 down as semi detached when ours should be detached, because they have a gate separating the house and garage too? (There is no sale data for ours, but number 26 is down as detached, so as you said we should be too.)

And how can there be the three in a row which are semi detached? Or is number 5 really a link semi detached but the website just doesn't use that term?

On the builder's map from when the estate was built 4, 25 and 26 are called detached but I know that's not a government document.

lincroft1710

I don't know from where the LR obtain their descriptions, so do not know the basis for saying No. 4 is a semi, it could just be an error somewhere along the line. The VOA would describe No. 4 as detached, but would agree with the LR descriptions of the others. As far as I am aware the VOA don't use the term "link semi".


Some estate agents will describe an end terrace as semi detached.


But I should point out that as there is no official list of houses and their types, there is no overriding body that can say a house type description is wrong.

andy29_2

Oh right, I didn't think the house types would be like that, an overriding body is exactly what I thought there would be

So if a pair of houses were identical in every way when built, but then later one builds, say, a two-storey extension, are they still both the same "style and design" as the VOA ask for in evidence?

Do you just take your chance picking the properties to a certain extent if you don't know exactly what the VOA are going to see regarding detached/semi and so on? In fact if their definition of "similar" is too tight then we won't have any to compare to!

Sorry for all the questions, in fact the more I look at their website the more confusing it is - they say "similar" as above but then say they must be "the same" age, style and design, size (but will consider larger!), type, street or estate or village...

lincroft1710

A house with a 2 storey extension will obviously be larger and may have an extra bedroom. If it goes from (say) a 100 sq metre 3 bed to a 120 sq metre 4 bed then it would not be much use as a comparable for a 100 sq metre 3 bed.


If you find a property which you think is comparable to yours, use it. If the VOA disagree, well that's hard luck, but better to have a rejection than not include one which could have proved your point

andy29_2

Fair enough. Of couse these ones that've been made much bigger are in the tax band below us, so you can see where the frustration comes from!

I'll see how it goes, thank you for all your help.

lincroft1710

andy29_2 said:

Fair enough. Of couse these ones that've been made much bigger are in the tax band below us, so you can see where the frustration comes from!

I'll see how it goes, thank you for all your help.

These could be in the wrong band. In the areas I dealt with Band E for a 3 bed detached was quite common. There certainly seem to be anomalies on that estate and it could well be that those in Band D are underassessed.