Challenging your Council Tax Band - Lothian, Scotland - Tips - Help - Discussion

GlennCTax

Further Evidence has just been found to consolidate our own Evidence against the RICS Valuer.

POINT 1 - We have again found new Evidence which was received from 2 other Appellants.  This Evidence + our own Evidence + Evidence from the Court Minutes show this Valuer has used misleading Evidence in a "Court of Law" and acted unscrupulously against another Edinburgh Appellant. 

This Edinburgh Appellant has new Evidence that also backs up both our Cases.  We are arranging to meet with this Appellant to exchange and discuss our Evidence.

POINT 2 - This Valuer has used so much Misleading Evidence against members of the public, it now shows a pattern of behaviour.  We have spent a great deal of time analysing new Evidence over the past few weeks which has uncovered further blatant use of misleading and unscrupulous behaviour from this RICS Valuer.  

POINT 3 - This Valuer has been entrusted with:

- All Tone Date Sales Prices
- All Property Sizes
- Property Apartment Count etc
- She has been RICS trained
- She has had experience in delivering Evidence in a "Council Tax Court"
- This was the 3rd opportunity we gave the assessors to simply present honest Court Evidence

This Valuer had all of the above advantages, yet she still chose to used a Volume of Misleading Evidence!!

POINT 4 - If you are Appealing your Council Tax Band, then our Evidence and experience can help you.  Even if you have challenged your Band many years ago, we would still like to hear from you, our extensive files of Evidence goes back to 1989.

We are willing to travel anywhere in Scotland to meet and share our Evidence with members of the public who are genuinely seeking help.  Your Evidence may in turn help us with our Campaign.  

We shall keep this Forum updated in the coming weeks and months.  Please feel free to comment.

GlennCTax

More Evidence to show the unscrupulous behaviour of this RICS Valuer.

POINT 1  - After another long weekend of analysing data, more Evidence has again been uncovered to further consolidate the use of misleading Evidence in this Valuers "Court" Productions. 

POINT 2 - Our accumulated Evidence as outlined below, shows this Valuer has used Misleading Evidence in her "Court" Productions by using Pound per square metre in our Attic Rooms without applying Reduction Factors - This is just one example of this Valuer's behaviour.

a)  When this Valuer chose to use pounds per square metre and count every cm of our heavily restricted Attic Rooms, she crossed a line.

b)  Her very own emails to another Appellant proves this Valuer was completely aware of her actions.

c)  Our Senior Technician knew he had to use Reduction Factors (RF) when measuring our restricted Attic Rooms.

d)  A whole file of Documented Evidence shows this Senior Technician gave us Evidence showing us why he has to use RF's.

e)  Numerous Taped conversations shows he gave us detailed explanations as to why he has to use RF's.

f)  He gave us a drawing detailing precisely why our Attic Rooms were receiving Reduced Floor area sizes.

f)  He sent us a copy of the Reduction Factor Table he was using.

g)  He even detailed a correction in an email - "This has been corrected from ‘Medium’ to ‘Heavy’ with a new reduction factor"

h)  His "Court" Productions shows he was using the RF's in his Evidence.

i)  Our Council Tax Manager also sent us Practice Notes giving more details of the use of RF's.

j)  The Council Tax Manager specifically detailed in his emails that these were the Practice Notes "used by staff".

k)  The Council Tax Manager also sent us a corrected Reduction Factor of 49% as our Attic Rooms suffered from heavy coving.

k)  The Council Tax Manager also sent us a corrected Reduction Factor Table.

l)  Taped Evidence shows the Council Tax Manager also explained why RF's are used.

m)  Even the "Assessor" informed us that they use Reduction Factors!!!!

n)  Our Evidence against this Valuer consists of:

- Numerous sales details purchased from Register of Sasine
- Plans purchased from East Lothian Planning Department.
- Information sheets purchased from East Lothian Planning Department.
- FOI's from Lothian Valuation Joint Board.

- Tone Date information from Lothian Valuation Joint Board.

- FOI's from East Lothian Planning Department.

- Various Old Library Archive sales details.
- Sales details taken from the internet.
- Details from Historic Scotland.

- Court Minutes of other Appellants Cases.

- Emails from various assessors.
- Various Taped Evidence.
- Corroborating Evidence from another Appellant.
- Third party Evidence from a Committee Member.
- Emails from the Valuer herself to another Appellant!!!

o)  All of the above Evidence shows this Valuer used Misleading Evidence when she chose to use the full floor sizes for our Attic Rooms.  Her own email Evidence to another Appellant has reinforced our Evidence that this Valuer was totally aware of her actions.

We are still analysing large amounts of information and awaiting further information at this moment in time.  We have been expanding our Campaign to other areas, however, we shall continue to give further updates in the coming weeks and months on this platform.

Please feel free to comment.  If your would rather communicate face to face, we are willing to travel to any part of Scotland to meet and share our Evidence with other members of the public who are genuinely seeking help with an ongoing Appeal or members who have already Appealed their Band.

GlennCTax

New Evidence Received From Another Appellant !!

POINT 1 - The Appellant told us a Lothian Council Tax Valuer came to visit her at her flat after the Appellant questioned her Banding.  The Valuer brought a hand drawn plan which the Valuer claimed was a plan of the Appellant's flat.

The hand drawn plan showed no resemblance to the Appellant's flat.  Her flat was a 3 apartment flat, the plan showed a 4 apartment flat.  The sizes on the plan did not match the sizes of her flat either.  The Valuer told her, she had no idea where the plan came from!!!

When the Appellant wrote to the Assessors in relation to the hand drawn plan, they replied back with the following statements:

- The very existence of that plan demonstrated that the property had been physically inspected at the time of its banding
- The sketch could only have been obtained by the valuer from a room by room survey of the property as no other plan was available as previously stated.

These statements can only be described as nonsense statements !! - These statements simply do not make any sense.

This hand drawn plan demonstrates, that it has nothing to do with the Appellants flat.  Wrong apartment count and wrong size.

POINT 2 -  An example of how absurd these statements are.

I could look at any flat in the Appellants street and guess the apartment count and size.  I could then do a hand drawing of the flat's size and apartments.  If I got both the apartment count and size wrong, it would be absurd for me to then claim that my hand drawn plan was evidence that the flat had been measured and surveyed!!

The Valuer who claimed, she had no idea where the plan came from, is the same Valuer who dealt with our Council Tax Appeal.  We have a volume of Evidence to show this experienced Valuer used Misleading Evidence in every area of her Court Productions!!

POINT 3 - These Assessors told the Appellant that they did not have an original plan and that they only had the hand drawn plan.  This is exactly what the assessors claimed when they first came to our house to show us evidence of our Banding!! 

The assessor claimed that our Attic plan did not exist.  We spent 2 minutes in the Planning Department and found the Attic Plan proving that it did indeed exist.

The Attic plan proved the assessors were using Misleading sizes for of our Attic!!!

POINT 4 - This is only a sample of the Evidence we have uncovered against this Valuer.  We are still analysing a volume of information daily and will give further updates in the coming weeks and months.

We are willing to travel to any part of Scotland to meet and share our Evidence with members of the public who are challenging their Council Tax Band or who have already had their Hearing.  

We are also willing to meet and share our Evidence with any members of the public who also have had discussions with the assessors.

Feel free to comment.

GlennCTax

More Unscrupulous Behaviour From The Assessors - Yet The Assessors Still Won Their Case

Council Tax "Court" Minute 71, shows the assessors are going into Court with their Comparison properties to support their Case that the Appellants property should remain in Band C. 

The Appellant and her expert witness from DM Hall went into the Court with all their Comparison properties to support Band B.

POINT 1 - However,  the assessors suppressed the Council Tax Bandings of a number of the of their Comparison properties!  In fact when summing up the Committee stated:

"The Committee thought that it was odd that she did not show the Bands applied to her comparisons.  They would not have been surprised if a lot of the Assessor's comparisons were actually banded B"  !!

Did the Committee not think to simply ask the Assessor which bands were applied to her Comparison properties!

POINT 2 - The Committee have already admitted that they thought the DM Hall witness was also an "eminently" well qualified witness who had a great deal of experience in the local area including in the "early 1990s".

POINT 3 - The Committee admitted that they believed that some of the Assessors conclusions "were stretched"

They also admitted that:

"The flat was close to the Band margin of B and C."


SUMMARY

a)  The Committee were aware that the Assessor suppressed a number of her Comparisons Bandings. 
b)  They believed a lot of the  Assessors Comparisons could actually be Band B - Yet did not question her.
c)  They admit that some of the Assessors conclusions were stretched.
d)  They admit that the Band  was close to the Band margin of B and C.
e)  DM Hall expert used all his Comparisons from the Appellant's own street (best Evidence from same street).

f)  The Assessors Comparisons were from 8 different streets!!

Why did the Committee not hold the Assessor to account for the Comparison Evidence she introduced into "a Court of Law"!!!  -  This is only a sample of the Evidence we have in relation to this Case.

We are willing to travel to any part of Scotland to meet and share our Evidence with members of the public who are challenging their Council Tax Band or who have already had their Hearing.  

Feel free to comment.

GlennCTax

Evidence uncovered against the Valuer - Assessors would not use a Mid-Terrace against a Semi-Detached.

POINT 1 - We see in the Council Tax "Court" Minute the Valuer stated that when comparing properties against a Semi-Detached property, they would not use Mid-Terrace properties.   They Stated they used Semi-Detached and End Terrace properties as comparison against the appellants Semi-Detached property.

The assessors tell the Court that using End-Terrace is similar to a Semi-Detached property as they both only share one adjoining wall with a neighbouring house.  Whereas the Mid-Terrace has 2 adjoining walls, therefore Mid-Terrace were not as comparable.

POINT 2 - However, when selecting comparison properties to use in our Case against our Detached property:

- This same Valuer used a Mid-Terrace property against our Detached property!

- Not only did he use this Mid-Terrace property, he moved his search 7 miles away to find this Mid-Terrace!

- This Valuer ignored all the local Detached properties!

- He also had a selection of Semi-Detached properties he could have used!

- He had a selection of End-Terrace he could have used!

- However, the Valuer went out 7 miles to find this Mid-Terrace property as this property favoured his Case!

- This Mid-Terrace property he used was more expensive than all the Detached, Semi-Detached and End-Terrace properties in our local area!!

POINT 3 - This Valuer did not just use one Mid-Terrace property against our Detached property, he used several Mid-Terrace properties while ignoring all local Detached properties!!

This is the same Valuer who used misleading Evidence in every area of his Council Tax Assessment in our Case.

 This is only a sample of the Evidence in relation to this Court Minute.

Due to the vast amount of information we have analysed over the past few weeks/months, we will be writing further Posts in the coming weeks and months.  We are still working our way through files of Evidence at this present time.

Please feel free to comment.  If your would rather communicate face to face, we are willing to travel to any part of Scotland to meet and share our Evidence with other members of the public who are genuinely seeking help with an ongoing Appeal, or members who have already Appealed their Council Tax Band.

GlennCTax

All 3 Council Tax Assessments carried out by Lothian Assessors have been heavily Misleading

POINT 1 - Result of the 3 Assessments

1st assessor placed our Council Tax Band at the bottom of Band E

The 2nd assessor placed it at the top of Band E

The 3rd assessos placed it in the middle of Band F!! (According to her £ per square metre assessment)

We used the assessors own Misleading Evidence, only we used local properties. 
- Their Evidence placed our Property in Band D!

POINT 2 - Our 3 year investigation has uncovered Misleading:

- Property Sizes
- Property Attachment
- Sales Price
- Apartment Count
- FOI replies
- Data Breach reply
- Numerous Misleading Statements
- Misleading Tone Date List
- Misleading Court Minutes
- Numerous Court Minutes Suppressed
- Numerous Comparison Properties Suppressed etc

POINT 3 - Analysis of new data today has uncovered further new Evidence

Our Evidence grows month by month.  We are willing to travel to any part of Scotland to share our Evidence with members of the public who are genuinely seeking help with an ongoing or past Council Tax Appeal.

Please feel free to comment.

GlennCTax

An Edinburgh Appellant was denied the Minutes to her own Council Tax Hearing of Appeal!!

POINT 1 -  An Edinburgh Appellant felt so strongly about the treatment she received when challenging her Council Tax Band, she attempted to take her Case to the Court of Session – risking a Court bill of £5000 - £10,000 or more!!!

POINT 2 - After we discussed our assessors and Court information with the Edinburgh Appellant, we discovered this Edinburgh Appellant was denied the right to see the minutes of her own Council Tax Hearing of Appeal!!

She was willing to risk £1000s going to the Court of Session, yet she was still denied the Minutes of her own Hearing!!  - We received a copy of the Minutes of her Hearing of Appeal!!!

The Edinburgh Appellant could not believe it!!

After sharing both our assessors and Court information, we found Evidence of further Misleading Evidence !!!

This is only a small sample of what the Edinburgh Appellant was up against when she challenged her Council Tax Band with the Lothian Assessors!!

Have you seen Evidence of your Council Tax Band!!

We are willing to travel to any part of Scotland to share our Evidence with members of the public who are genuinely seeking help with an ongoing or past Council Tax Appeal.

Please feel free to comment.

GlennCTax

Are You Having Trouble Finding 1991 Property Sales Prices?

  - Then you should be aware of what the Scottish Assessors were told back in 1998 !!!

GlennCTax

Exposing the Lothian assessors.

With all the new Evidence in relation to RICS and Council Tax assessments of other Appellants Cases, we are now in the process of writing to TV and Newspapers in a bid to expose Lothian assessors for their use of Fraudulent Evidence used against various members of the Public.

GlennCTax

Assessors Use Misleading Court Evidence When Measuring Attics!!!

When measuring Properties for Council Tax using Pounds Per Square Metre, Lothian assessors:

- Do not use Reduction Factors when measuring the Attic with Heavy Coombe Ceilings.

- They count all areas under 1.6m (or 5 feet) in the Attic.

- They measure the external length of the Attic.

Members of the Public have gone to Prison for using Misleading Council Tax Evidence!!

We gather Evidence on a daily basis to expose the Misleading Evidence used against various unsuspecting members of the Public in Lothian and in Edinburgh!

Have you seen Evidence of your Council Tax Band?

Why not DM – Our Evidence could help you.