Money Moral Dilemma: Should we report neighbours who are in the 'wrong' council tax band?

hippygran

No!
Why on Earth would you even want to?
You won’t gain, your neighbours certainly won’t gain.
And it won’t improve anything in your area so you won’t even get better/more services as a result!

Shoeysmum

You should definitely quote the addresses of those neighbours who are in a lower band than yours.  Your council needs this information as evidence that you're being overcharged.  Don't think of it as 'grassing' on your neighbours.

primrose_penguin

I know how you feel because I went through the same process. I asked the council to reassess our house, which is a 1 bedroom cottage (the only one in our small town), however it is in a row with other bigger houses which have a higher band except for the other end of the street which have 2 bedroom larger houses who are paying the same as me. The council also asked me to show which houses in the town are on my band for them to compare. It made no difference, they would not reduce my band, I did not feel guilty in this instance as I was only comparing my small house to several in the town which were larger so their bands would not have gone up, but I still feel mine should have gone down. However like others have said the council themselves should do the investigating as they are the ones who set the bands.

Babsiebaby882

tedwood2 said:

Too true you should.   The more that under pay, the more the council have to put it up for everyone.   I may be old fashioned but I think everyone should pay what they should.

Seriously?  Do you really think that because I hate to tell you how wrong you are.  If you upgrade or extend your home it is only once sold that the council tax goes up.  So OP’s neighbours will be in a lower band because they’ve not moved since they upgraded.  And more to the point, how would you feel if someone did that to you?  If the council are that worried let them do the work themselves. 

P.s I work for the local authority and would NEVER ask a tenant to ‘grass up’ a neighbour. 

That’s how people end up on Neighbours from Hell or Killer Neighbour Next Door!!!

Pollycat

Babsiebaby882 said:

tedwood2 said:

Too true you should.   The more that under pay, the more the council have to put it up for everyone.   I may be old fashioned but I think everyone should pay what they should.

Seriously?  Do you really think that because I hate to tell you how wrong you are.  If you upgrade or extend your home it is only once sold that the council tax goes up.  So OP’s neighbours will be in a lower band because they’ve not moved since they upgraded.  And more to the point, how would you feel if someone did that to you?  If the council are that worried let them do the work themselves. 

P.s I work for the local authority and would NEVER ask a tenant to ‘grass up’ a neighbour. 

That’s how people end up on Neighbours from Hell or Killer Neighbour Next Door!!!

Oh, there are lots of threads here on MSE about nightmare neighbours.

REJP

As mentioned above, people can improve their own property within planning and building regulations, and continue to live in it at the current Council Tax band.  I can confirm it will be rebanded when sold to a new owner as I am in the position of having improved my property, and I asked Council how it affected my Council Tax.  It will be rebanded when sold on.
Leave your neighbours alone, they are not breaking any rules.  For your further information, Councils do rely on updates of maps on a regular basis by the Ordnance Survey Office, that is in addition to any checking on buildings using Google Earth maps which are very detailed.

Europhil99

Technically I don't think you'd be snitching as I imagine your neighbours are not actively trying to cheat anyone. However I agree with the majority comments that it's the council's responsibility to ensure that homes are correctly taxed not yours. The unfairness is the outcome of a shoddy, lazy approach to revaluation carried out in the 90s I think, whereby officers would literally drive by houses and guess the Band. We need a thorough review of council tax bands but there's little incentive as it would be costly and mightily p**s off a huge load of people in big houses on Bands C and D.

hannerrbabes

What would you realistically gain from your neighbours paying more?

And why would you do the admin work for the council who could literally do a quick online search and find this easily accessible info out?

ardee

I wouldn't because I don't know the financial situation of my neighbours.  Moving them onto a higher band could push them over the edge and cause them to lose their home or even put them even further into debt crisis until they feel that suicide is the only way out.

littlemillridge

Under the old rating system your rates were increased if you improved your house, but that isn't the case with Council Tax. All houses are in the council tax band they were put into when the valuations were done in 1993, regardless of how many improvements have been carried out since then. I bought my 2-bedroom run-down cottage for £23,000 in 1993 just before Council Tax came in and it was put in Band A. It is now a 4-bed 2-bath worth about £240,000 but is still in Band A - which is a huge disincentive to move!