Challenging council tax band

mookev

After Martin's excellent programme last night, I've been through his suggestions for checking our council tax band of E. On checking our postcode there are 31 properties, all built in 1960s. 29 are band E like us, 2 are Band D, one of which is our opposite neighbour. The only difference I can see is that in the 'with effect box' the date is 1st April 1993. This is the same for both Band D properties, with that box empty on all the remaining 29 properties. Does this suggest they challenged it in 1993? When I use the nationwide value checker, based on our 1998 buying price of £95500, and do a value check for 1991, it returns a value of £81762 suggesting band D (range £68001- £88000. The 2 band D properties have not extensions, we have a small single brick thickness kitchen extension with a plastic roof approx 3ft wide by 10ft long. In your opinion is this worth pursuing for revaluation, but could it lead to our neighbours band D properties being revalued as well?

p00hsticks

mookev said:

The only difference I can see is that in the 'with effect box' the date is 1st April 1993. This is the same for both Band D properties, with that box empty on all the remaining 29 properties. 

The 1st April 1993 is the date that council tax was originally introduced.

 I think the fact that it shows for the two Band D properties suggests that they've either never changed hands or never been marked as having 'improvement indicators' , whereas all he others have had improvements (extensions etc) and therefore re-valued at the point they next changed hands.

 Or you could be correct in saying that those two were the only ones that successfully appealed when the tax was first introduced...

lincroft1710

Nationwide house price indices are inaccurate and would not be accepted by the VOA.


As the 2 band D houses have effective dates of 1 April 1993 it suggests the bands may have been reduced (or even increased, if this was done before about 1996).


A very small extension of inferior construction is probably not band significant, unless the value of a house without an extension is right at the top of the band.


Only the VOA would be able to say if your request for a reduction would lead to the Band D houses being re-appraised. You can ask the VOA to review your band, but as the majority of your neighbours are also Band E, you are going to have find some pretty compelling evidence to avoid a "computer says no" type response from the VOA.