Council Tax Band Review

Yorkie4404

lincroft1710 said:

If you were living in a property as at 1 April 1993 (when CT came into being) and wished to appeal its band, your appeal had to have been received by the relevant VOA office no later than 30 November 1993, otherwise it would not have been considered valid

Indeed - however quoting Martin's post:

"- Can't formally challenge? Do it informally. Over the years we've heard feedback from people who've been told they can't challenge as they've lived in their property too long – yet the VOA has a statutory duty to uphold the integrity of Council Tax bands list."

It may well be that if enough people rattle the cage then "statutory duty" will eventually come into play.

lincroft1710

All house price indices/calculators are inaccurate and their figures will not be accepted by the VOA as relevant evidence

lincroft1710

Yorkie4404 said:

lincroft1710 said:

If you were living in a property as at 1 April 1993 (when CT came into being) and wished to appeal its band, your appeal had to have been received by the relevant VOA office no later than 30 November 1993, otherwise it would not have been considered valid

Indeed - however quoting Martin's post:

"- Can't formally challenge? Do it informally. Over the years we've heard feedback from people who've been told they can't challenge as they've lived in their property too long – yet the VOA has a statutory duty to uphold the integrity of Council Tax bands list."

It may well be that if enough people rattle the cage then "statutory duty" will eventually come into play.

Informal band challenges have been occurring for 30 years, I'm ex VOA and dealt with loads  of them. I was talking about precisely why you were 31 years too late to make a formal appeal

electribem

Thank you all for your stories and comments above. I have read them and taken note.

I am in a similar situation with Enfield council. I first asked for a Council Tax Band review back in 2007 as I had just moved into a new build property and saw that similar properties on my road were banded D when mine was a band E. I was categorically and flatly denied then. 

On reading varies news articles and Martins website I decided to challenge again. This is the new response I got from Enfield Council....

Thank you for your email dated 21 November 2024 which we received on 21 November 2024.

You have not provided enough evidence in your email to allow us to undertake a review.

You may provide the address and details of up to 5 similar properties in a lower Council Tax band as evidence.

Our records show that the list of properties you provided differ to your own.  Considering all the evidence available, we cannot consider these properties as comparable.

Comparable properties must be the same type of property as your own. A house must always be compared with a house, never bungalows or flats. Bungalows must always be compared with bungalows, and flats with flats. Flats and maisonettes are not comparable with each other.

If your property is detached, your comparable property should be too. Semi-detached properties may be compared to end-terrace properties if they are the same in all other ways.

Comparable properties should also be of a similar size to your own, built at a similar time and be similar in kerbside appearance.

The evidence we need may include any of the following:

• Evidence of identical, or very similar properties to yours, in your locality (within 1/4 mile of your property, this can be extended to ten miles for rural areas) which are in a lower band, please provide full address(es) including the postcode(s) of your comparable(s)

and/or

•  Evidence in your locality, very close to the valuation date of 1 April 1991 (no more than two years either side of this date), which suggests your property might be incorrectly banded,

and/or

•Evidence that an error was made when your property was banded.

 We are unable to accept evidence of sales completed outside of these dates, or evidence that does not include the price a property was sold for.

 Any sale used as evidence must be an open market sale. We cannot accept evidence of an ‘arm’s length’ sale, in which buyers and sellers have a relationship with each other that may affect the price.

 If you have been the council taxpayer for longer than six months, you must provide enough evidence for us to undertake a review of your band.

 We will investigate the band if you are able to provide more compelling evidence to suggest your property has been incorrectly banded.

For further information about Council Tax, please visit the GOV.UK website and search 'Council Tax band’.

If you would like more detailed information, please go to GOV.UK and search ‘How domestic properties are assessed for Council Tax bands’ and/or you can view the VOA YouTube video entitled, ‘How Council Tax Works’.

Please note: If you are sending documents by email, the Valuation Office Agency can only accept emails up to size limit 25MB and we cannot access links to file sharing sites. If your email is above this size, you will need to split the information over several emails. Please use the same subject name and add for example 1 of 2, 2 of 2. If possible please save any attachments in PDF or JPG format.

Yours sincerely,

Customer Service Centre

On reading the response I am disheartened as it seems an impossible task to prove. I have been doing a google street view search of neighbouring streets and getting house numbers and comparing bands but it is very hard to get accurate property information without knocking on doors and asking. There are clearly detached houses, which mine is, that are labelled as terraced on right move. 

The questions I have that need answering are:

1. Do I have a solid case to put forward now?

2. Where do I get SOLID information about similar properties to mine that were built in 2006 in my area so I can compare?

3. Where on earth do I get evidence very close to the valuation date of 01/04/1991? My house was built in 2006. I don't understand.

Thank you for your time.

lincroft1710

Firstly it would have been the VOA who replied not Enfield Council.  


I don't see you have any case to put forward other than there are some houses in your road in Band D, but you haven't said how similar they are to your own home. The Land Registry will have sale prices of 2006 properties but probably no details.       


Pre 1995 sale prices are not in the public domain.                                                                     

electribem

lincroft1710 said:

 
but you haven't said how similar they are to your own home.
                                                             

They are all 3 bedroom detached properties like mine but they are not new builds. 

I put one of these properties forward as evidence but the VOA has regarded that as dissimilar. I am stumped as to the reason why. 

lincroft1710

electribem said:

lincroft1710 said:

 
but you haven't said how similar they are to your own home.
                                                             

They are all 3 bedroom detached properties like mine but they are not new builds. 

I put one of these properties forward as evidence but the VOA has regarded that as dissimilar. I am stumped as to the reason why. 

They could be smaller in size, not have en suites etc. Why not ask the VOA what the differences are?

electribem

lincroft1710 said:

 
Why not ask the VOA what the differences are?

That's a good suggestion. I will do just that. There is also a pointer on the email I got saying to search GOV.UK for ‘How domestic properties are assessed for Council Tax bands. I have to say that I am not afraid of hard work, being a former Biomedical Scientist, but surely as a long standing council tax payer shouldn't the VOA at the very least help a bit more with searches in such matters? I find this process disheartening, confusing and very off putting as if the powers that be want you to fail and keep quiet. I feel I have a genuine case to put forward, I just need all the pieces I present to the VOA to be correct. 

lincroft1710

electribem said:

lincroft1710 said:

 
Why not ask the VOA what the differences are?

That's a good suggestion. I will do just that. There is also a pointer on the email I got saying to search GOV.UK for ‘How domestic properties are assessed for Council Tax bands. I have to say that I am not afraid of hard work, being a former Biomedical Scientist, but surely as a long standing council tax payer shouldn't the VOA at the very least help a bit more with searches in such matters? I find this process disheartening, confusing and very off putting as if the powers that be want you to fail and keep quiet. I feel I have a genuine case to put forward, I just need all the pieces I present to the VOA to be correct. 

No longer. When I was in the VOA and there were local offices, the VOA had to prove the band correct as CT was in its infancy and not well established. Now it is well established, CT payers have to prove their case. This is no different to say a court or tribunal where the accuser has to prove their case and usually doesn't get much help from the other side.

Gustygoat

Hi,

Have been following this thread and similar ones with interest past few weeks and have now registered with the MSE forum as I'm in a similar situation to that of electribem and would welcome any advice on the best way to proceed with the VOA.

In a nutshell, I'm in North Wales and strongly feel my early 1900s four bed, but small detached house should be in Band E, not F. (I bought in 2022 so can only go down the informal review route)

This view is based on two far larger detached homes with six bedrooms and large gardens/drives front and rear dating back to a very similar period being in the lower band that are less than 100 metres from my property as the crow flies.

In addition, there are countless larger semi-detached houses from the same era also in the lower band in the immediate vicinity, including my next but one neighbour.

Having obtained my PAD from the VOA last month, I was shocked to see they have my home registered as being far bigger than it is; we're talking around 25-40% of extra internal space that simply doesn't exist and I can only think their records are based on the entire plot size (small garden at front and small patio at back), rather than that of the actual home.

As such, I was fairly confident of a successful outcome in my initial approach to the VOA, but they rejected my evidence of our floor space. I provided them with a copy of the EPC commissioned by the previous owner, as well as a sales brochure featuring the dimensions of all the rooms bar the only bathroom and adjacent toilet.

The VOA offered no guidance as to what evidence they would deem reliable, so I'm currently waiting callbacks from local chartered surveyors and architects so I can get a more accurate and "official" record and hope that will suffice so they can at least correct the PAD.

In addition to the above, I also sent Google Streetview images of the aforementioned detached homes but they dismissed that in an identical-worded email to that sent to electribem.

They simply said - and I take strong issue with this given the style and type are very, very similar: "Our records show that the list of properties you provided differ to your own in regard to style & type. Considering all the evidence available, we cannot consider these properties as comparable."

I'm now in the process of trying to find sales/price information from 2003 to support my case but, unfortunately, the two homes referenced have not been on the market for many years and so bar knocking on their doors and asking for dimensions, I have no way of obtaining the relevant data.

Like electribem, it seems the dice are loaded against us when it comes to proving our case. A simple drive or virtual tour of the area would show our property is by far the smallest in the 5-6 surrounding roads and I'm at a loss to see how the massive homes (which must be at least 50-60% bigger) round the corner can pay less CT than us.

Being a Conwy Council resident, CT has gone by 10% in recent years and 2025 is looking like a similar hike, so these are not insignificant sums.

For the record, I offered the VOA the opportunity to visit so they could see for themselves the incorrect PAD and view the other two houses within spitting distance, but they never referenced that in their reply.

Any advice would be welcomed.

GG