Council tax banding

Sergiomorri

Hello,

l’m in the process of purchasing a house that has had a significant amount of work carried out by the previous owners (an extension turning it it from a 2 bed bungalow to a 4 bed and extended kitchen/diner). 

Where would we stand with regards to a change in council tax bands based on the improvements. I’ve checked the .gov website which shows there are no improvement indicators on the property at the moment but should I be prepared for an increase in council tax and a potential back payment?

MultiFuelBurner

I.dont believe they can back date the band change but it's likely one is due with that much renovation.

Have you tried the calculator here for a basic idea

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/council-tax-bands-change/

gwynlas

It does not usually affect those who have made the changes but will come into play now. You  need to ascertain what similar houses were banded at when bandings came into effect originally as councils often over estimate their past worth hence the appeals often mentionned on forum

lincroft1710

gwynlas said:

It does not usually affect those who have made the changes but will come into play now. You  need to ascertain what similar houses were banded at when bandings came into effect originally as councils often over estimate their past worth hence the appeals often mentionned on forum

The Valuation Office Agency (part of HMRC) deal with CT banding not local councils. Most of the original banding was actually carried out by estate agents working on behalf of the VOA. The number of appeals against CT bands is quite low, probably less than 10% and probably less than half of these achieved a reduction.


Out of curiosity (I'm.ex VOA) I recently checked the Valuation Tribunal decisions for one of the areas I dealt with and there had been very few appeal hearings and hardly any were successful.

Sergiomorri

Thank you for all the comments. I think my main worry was that it would be up to us to inform the council/HMRC of any changes but from the link provided it appears we have no responsibility to inform them

daivid

Are you in England or Wales? Wales is due a CT re-evaluation soon I believe. I don’t see any risk of back payment though as I agree there is nothing suggesting a purchaser needs to make any declarations.

AlexMac

I’d be interested in how this works in practice if anyone out there has experience. We DID improve our house (a simple garage conversion to a study/bathroom a few years ago) and presumably because I involved Building Control, we do have an “improvement indicator” YES flag.

As the gov website says…

” If the property has been improved or extended since it was placed in a Council Tax band, a Yes will be shown. If a Yes is shown, the band will be reviewed and may increase following the sale of the property.”

…I’d assumed my CT band wouldn’t change unless and until I sold (which may or may not happen before they carry me out in a box?). 

This assumption is bourne out by the fact that several neighbours also have YES indications, even though their improvements all pre-date mine. In fact one of them was improved 18-20 years ago and is still banded 2 tiers down from mine, despite now being much bigger. 

But what do I know?  I’m certainly not going to rock the boat!

CSI_Yorkshire

AlexMac said:

…I’d assumed my CT band wouldn’t change unless and until I sold (which may or may not happen before they carry me out in a box?). 

Correct - the improvement indicator shows that it should be reassessed at the next sale.

Slinky

We extended our previous home which should have moved it into the next band up when we sold it, only the council missed putting an improvement indicator on their records (which they knew about as it was done with PP and under BC oversight). So far 4 years on it's still in the old band and nobody appears to have noticed. 

I wonder how far back they can retrospectively apply the charges if/when they realise.

Sergiomorri

daivid said:

Are you in England or Wales? Wales is due a CT re-evaluation soon I believe. I don’t see any risk of back payment though as I agree there is nothing suggesting a purchaser needs to make any declarations.

We are in England so hopefully they won’t do the same here in the near future

Sergiomorri

Slinky said:

I wonder how far back they can retrospectively apply the charges if/when they realise.

Everything I have found only covers if you have been underpaying for wrongful reductions, no mention anywhere about incorrect bands