Council Tax Rebanding - Different Approach?

Ratty987

Hi - there are 625 houses on my (long!) road - there are many different styles and ages. My house is only one of six in band G (there are no H's). The rest range from A to F, with a lot of Fs.

Given the variety of styles and ages, I am struggling to find examples similar to my own which are band F. There are lots which are clearly far larger than mine but of a different age or semis (mine is detached). However, I am very confident that many of these semis are worth substantiallly more than my property - they are simply much bigger. 

There are some reasons why I think my house might have been mis-categorised - although mine is detached, it is 'linked' to my neighbour with a gated walkway and it is easy to misinterpret which bit of that is mine vs his. There is also a large area immediately at my front door (200sq m) - none of which belongs to me, but again I can see that it might look like it would.  One of my neighbours was present all those years ago when the council tax banding was done - and tells me that the chap spent about three minutes doing the assessment for eight properties All of which are very different!

I was wondering about mounting a challenge where the evidence I submit shows that all the other G rated houses are far larger than mine. Would that be a goer? Or should I focus my efforts on finding the best five band F examples? Or should I do both?

Also, I understand it is important to find houses of a similar age for comparative purposes - what kind of leeway is permitted on this? Mine was built in the late 1960s.

Thank you for any input!

lincroft1710

It is difficult to envisage what you mean by a "gated walkway", I doubt it would mean your home is not detached. Hearsay evidence about what was perceived to have happened 30 years ago is irrelevant, the people doing the banding exercise had details of virtually every dwelling they had to band.


Because of the huge bandwidth of Band G, it wouldn't help much by referencing larger house in Band G. Similarly I wouldn't use semis. Look for detached houses in Band F from the 1950s onwards and look at nearby roads as well as your own