Backdated re banding for Council Tax due to Certificate of Lawful Use

gigithecat

At the end of August a detached outbuilding on my property was awarded a Certificate of Lawful Use on the 4 year ruling, a council tax band B, and subsequently a backdated council tax bill to 2015, the year it was built. Let’s call this The Barn. 

The adjacent semi detached farm worker’s cottage has, since my purchase of it in March 2001, been band C. Let’s call this The Cottage. 

At the same time as receiving a Council Tax bill for backdated tax for The Barn to 2015 when it was built, I also received backdated Council Tax bill for The Cottage which has been re banded and backdated to 2015 as well, now to a Band F.  

Meanwhile, a small studio annex behind The Cottage, let’s call this The Annex, is apparently now also being considered for banding as well. This would make a third band of Council Tax payable for the one property and would I imagine be band A. 

I am a single person living alone at the property so will have the discount applied to at least one of the bills I imagine, but am self employed and on an income below 15k pa. The annual Council Tax for the property is going to exceed £7k pa!! 

How can they re band and back date The Cottage to 2015 and send me a bill with 7 days to pay? Is this legitimate or can I challenge this? 

Can they really introduce a band for The Annex and back date this too, and to well? 

To give an indication, the Council tax bills I received last week already total nearly  £26,000. 

If they add The Annex to this, it could be in the region of £32,000 - £35,000

Does anyone have any knowledge of this sort of thing?
I am loathe to add legal expenses to this without first knowing what I can do myself

Help!!

lincroft1710

CT bands can be backdated, which would lead to bills also being backdated.


If The Annex has facilities for food preparation, washing, room to live and sleep and a WC it can have its own
band.


What is The Cottage attached to? Were the 2 properties merged to form one some years ago? 


If the new bands have been notified to you within the last 6 months you can make formal appeals. But I would you contact the VOA (presuming you are in England or Wales) regarding the bands and the council regarding the bills.


I am intrigued by the fact you live alone but have 3 dwellings

gigithecat

Thanks for comments, and this is England. Attached to neighbouring cottages, or semi attached. How far back dated can CT re banding go and on what grounds exactly? What sort of information should I use to challenge the 'effective dates'? 

lincroft1710

thara1996 said:

Heya.  

This is a mini crisis to fix. But don’t worry. It can be fixed. What you need to do is to send a few photos and letter to the Valuation Agency Office requesting a review too. Good luck. 

Firstly it may be correct. Secondly the OP should make a formal appeal if possible, not just ask for a review

lincroft1710

gigithecat said:

Thanks for comments, and this is England. Attached to neighbouring cottages, or semi attached. How far back dated can CT re banding go and on what grounds exactly? What sort of information should I use to challenge the 'effective dates'? 

A band can be backdated to when the dwelling first came into existence. So if a dwelling existed on 1 April 1993 (start of CT) and for some reason was not banded when it should have been, the band can be backdated to that date. Those are the only grounds needed, a dwelling was not banded on the date it should have been. I'm ex VOA and dealt with one where we had to backdate 7 years, house on a new estate and council had failed to tell us about it. The CT payer got a backdated bill for 7 years. 


Even though you only recently received a Certificate of Lawful Use, CT legislation is not bound by planning legislation and a dwelling which contravenes planning legislation can most definitely be banded.


I don't understand why The Cottage has increased from Band C to Band F and backdated to 2015, this could only happen if it was merged with another property in that year. If this is not the case then you need to ask the VOA exactly what has happened and if not satisfied by their answer make a formal appeal.

gigithecat

Again, thank you for your comments, both. 
I have now had further conversations with VOA and they suggest I submit a Proposal form, their process for me to challenge via. 
But I will have to challenge 3 things 
The effective date for the cottage
The banding for the cottage
The banding for the barn

I do not understand why or how they can, at this point and when I have been paying ct all these years for the cottage, re band and back date that 8/9 years. It seems very wrong.
Ref your comment that they can only do this if it has been merged with another property, I don't know that this would apply in this instance because the property as a whole was in existence and the recent CLU just means it now has two bandings for two buildings on it. This was done so that in time, the barn could be used for a different commercial purpose such as b and b perhaps or home business although currently this is not possible to do due to a res cov.
The fact this process may take months is filing me with dread as very sadly, now I am also forced to sell. The issues need to be sorted out and I must do so, and there is a knock on effect as it has likely reduced the value of the property because they upped the banding, and created a new banding for the second 'dwelling', all things I did not foresee. 
As I have little experience of such things, all comments are of interest in this regard. 

lincroft1710

gigithecat said:

Again, thank you for your comments, both. 
I have now had further conversations with VOA and they suggest I submit a Proposal form, their process for me to challenge via. 
But I will have to challenge 3 things 
The effective date for the cottage
The banding for the cottage
The banding for the barn

I do not understand why or how they can, at this point and when I have been paying ct all these years for the cottage, re band and back date that 8/9 years. It seems very wrong.
Ref your comment that they can only do this if it has been merged with another property, I don't know that this would apply in this instance because the property as a whole was in existence and the recent CLU just means it now has two bandings for two buildings on it. This was done so that in time, the barn could be used for a different commercial purpose such as b and b perhaps or home business although currently this is not possible to do due to a res cov.
The fact this process may take months is filing me with dread as very sadly, now I am also forced to sell. The issues need to be sorted out and I must do so, and there is a knock on effect as it has likely reduced the value of the property because they upped the banding, and created a new banding for the second 'dwelling', all things I did not foresee. 
As I have little experience of such things, all comments are of interest in this regard. 

Yes you do need to appeal the rebanding, but the backdating of the barn's band is more relevant than the actual band. You also need to talk to the council and try to get them to delay enforcing payment of the new bills. They may or may not be co-operative, if not see if your local councillor can help.


You also need to go back to the VOA and impress upon them and insist given the financial predicament you are in, they explain exactly and precisely why they have backdated the barn and more importantly why the have increased and backdated the cottage's band. If you can't get an answer see if your MP can help.

gigithecat

Thanks for comments again. The backdating makes sense given date of 'liveable in from' for the barn.

Cottage however is a mystery as I thought it not possible for increase in banding until point of sale? 

Asking the local MP for help is a good shout and I may have recourse to this eventually. 
First off, I will ask for more explanation and submit a challenge.

And yes, thank you, also I will ask for a delay to enforcement until clarification has been met.