North Lanarkshire, Scotland - Council Tax Band Appeal

kitkat1909

Hi,

 

I live in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. I purchased my house in March 2017, and at the time it was a new-build. There are 6 or 7 different ‘styles’ of house in my estate, and when we were first issued out Council Tax Banding Notice in 2017, I checked if my house was in the same band as the other houses in the estate which were the same style as my own. They were, and we are all in a band F, so I took it to be correct and took no action.

 

However, I recently came across Martin’s article on Council Tax, and decided to look up the 1991 value of my home. According to the Nationwide price/valuation checker, my home’s value would have equated to a Band E in 1991. I also then decided to check my next door neighbour’s band, and although their house is a different style/layout than my own, it’s the same number of bedrooms. Their home is in a band E.

 

So, I decided to submit a proposal to the Joint Valuation Board asking them to review my banding. I immediately got a reply stating that I was out of time, because I should have submitted an appeal within 6 months of becoming the owner, which I appreciate I did not do. I should have appealed by November 2017. They said I could appeal to the Local Taxation Chamber (“LTC”) if I felt their reasons for refusal were invalid.

 

I recently took some time to look further afield at homes which met the following criteria:

• Built by the same house builder
• In the same local authority area or neighbouring local authority area to my home
• Exact same house style/floor plan as my own (being a new build it was easy to find site plans, floorplans etc online and verify that the floorplans are the same as my own)

 

I easily found 10 different housing estates where all the homes that were the same style/floorplan as my own were in a band E. 

 

I have submitted an appeal to the LTC, on the basis that:

• I have found 10 examples of estates with identical homes to mine that are in the lower band
• These homes were all built after November 2017
• Between March 2017 (taking possession of the property) and November 2017 (last possible date for valid proposal) none of these homes had yet been built and I had no basis for comparison, and had to assume the assessor’s valuation was correct.

 

I provided the above examples to the LTC in support of my appeal.

 

I have had a reply today asking me to submit my “written representation” and I’m wondering if anyone here has any guidance/experience of this? Given that I’ve already submitted all my evidence/rationale, I’m not sure what it is they’re looking for at this stage. My plan is to resubmit the 10 x example properties that I’ve already provided.

 

I have seen on this forum that the Nationwide house price checker tool is inaccurate, so don’t intend to mention this but wondered:

• Is there an alternative, more accurate way of checking the 1991 valuation, independently?
• How would I be able to find other examples in Scotland of cases where the 6 month rule has been ‘overlooked’ and a re-banding has occurred following an appeal?

 

Many thanks

lincroft1710

There is no way round the 6 months time limit, your appeal was submitted over 6 years too late and is therefore not valid.


There is no way of finding accurate 1991 sale prices.   


Neighbouring areas may have had slightly lower values in 1991.


Next door may have same number of bedrooms, but could be smaller in overall size.


There is an absolute outside chance that following appeal the Joint Valuation Board may have reduced the CT band of an identical or very similar house in the neighbourhood within the past six months. If this has happened then you can appeal citing this as your reason for appeal. However the Assessor can still reject this as being invalid if they do not agree that your house is similar to the one that was reduced

Plug123

I recently put in a FOI request to a Scottish Assessor asking for any sale information from 1990 to 1995 for properties which were similar to the one I wanted to "appeal".  I did receive the sales information (if there was any).  I believe you can ask for an "informal" review of your band if you are out of time - see leaflet on council tax banding on the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman website.  I discovered that the Glasgow Assessor had refused sales evidence to an appellant some years back but the Scottish Information Commissioner ruled (2014) that they had to supply.  It also seems than an "uplift" was applied to the property I am looking at even although there was a recorded sale at June 1990.  They (not Glasgow it is a different area I am looking at) also seem to be using "no of apartments" in some way when I thought it was the size (GEA?) of the property that mattered.  I am currently looking into this.