Council Tax Improvements

S_Stevie

Hi

Just wondered if anyone else has come across this problem & if they were successful.

My Story.

I had extension to my house, as did my neighbour.  My neighbour did not move out of his house during his extension, I temporarily did & stopped paying council tax for a few months as I was not occupying the house.  My neighbour was not re-banded but I was.  My neighbour is a C band as was I, then when I re-registered with council tax, they rebanded me an E.

After recently seeing Martin Lewis on TV, I decided to tackle this & I have received a reply from Council Tax they state that: 

(Any neighbours that have had work carried out but chose to leave the property in the rating list whilst works were ongoing, the band will not change until the property next sells. As your property was previously deleted from the Council Tax list, when it was brought back onto the Council Tax list it would have been treated as a new property and this resulted in the band increase. Under current legislation we are unable to review the council tax band until a property has been sold, and we have received the Stamp Duty Land Tax to confirm completion of the sale. )

I owned the property & temporarily moved out whilst work was carried out, it is not a new build, so they are basically saying that because I stopped paying council tax for a couple of months..they rebanded me despite me being the owner & no sale occured ...surely this cannot be right, as they clearly state that Council Tax will not be rebanded until a sale & the have received confirmation from Stamp Duty people upon completion of sale.

Any advice on how to approach this would be appreciated

Thank You

DE_612183

I'm not sure - but deleting the property from the council tax list is a clerical process issue that the council have.

If they say they cannot review the tax band until it's sold - how were they able to review it the first time around?

I agree with you - I think the Council have got it wrong - which Council was it - others may have similar experience.

lincroft1710

The VOA deal with CT banding, not the council.


If the property was deleted from the Valuation List, then it  becomes a "new" dwelling (NB not "new build") when it is re-entered in the VL and is valued as it stands. Therefore it is not a case of the existing band being reviewed as the dwelling had ceased to be banded.

DE_612183

lincroft1710 said:

The VOA deal with CT banding, not the council.


If the property was deleted from the Valuation List, then it  becomes a "new" dwelling (NB not "new build") when it is re-entered in the VL and is valued as it stands. Therefore it is not a case of the existing band being reviewed as the dwelling had ceased to be banded.

@lincroft1710 - yes that makes sense - however should the council have deleted it from the valuation list? Looks to me like a strange way of setting the tax to zero....

lincroft1710

DE_612183 said:

lincroft1710 said:

The VOA deal with CT banding, not the council.


If the property was deleted from the Valuation List, then it  becomes a "new" dwelling (NB not "new build") when it is re-entered in the VL and is valued as it stands. Therefore it is not a case of the existing band being reviewed as the dwelling had ceased to be banded.

@lincroft1710 - yes that makes sense - however should the council have deleted it from the valuation list? Looks to me like a strange way of setting the tax to zero....

The council does not delete from the VL, the VOA does. The VOA would only delete a property if it was incapable of being used as a dwelling, and the bar is usually set fairly high. Even if they shouldn't have done, it is too late now.

S_Stevie

DE_612183 said:

I'm not sure - but deleting the property from the council tax list is a clerical process issue that the council have.

If they say they cannot review the tax band until it's sold - how were they able to review it the first time around?

I agree with you - I think the Council have got it wrong - which Council was it - others may have similar experience.

Hi

Thank you  for your reply.

I am with Charnwood Borough Council Leicestershire & I think it was rebanded via VOA from my plans submitted to the Council.

Makes no sense to me if they clearly state, if you move out whilst work is being carried out, your band will not change until the house is sold, but my argument is there was not a sale?  My mistake was to temporarily stop paying Council Tax, as surely that is the right thing to do if you are not living there, hence they deleted me from the Council Tax list & re-entered me with the changed band.

Had I have known this, I would not have stopped paying my Council Tax.  

Surely can't be right if my neighbour had a very similar extension & remained a C & they rebanded me an E.

Costly mistake, or do I have a case? If anyone has come across this before, please reply with your experience.

Thanks

S_Stevie

DE_612183 said:

lincroft1710 said:

The VOA deal with CT banding, not the council.


If the property was deleted from the Valuation List, then it  becomes a "new" dwelling (NB not "new build") when it is re-entered in the VL and is valued as it stands. Therefore it is not a case of the existing band being reviewed as the dwelling had ceased to be banded.

@lincroft1710 - yes that makes sense - however should the council have deleted it from the valuation list? Looks to me like a strange way of setting the tax to zero....

I think VOA  must have taken it from the plans that I submitted to the Council.

S_Stevie

DE_612183 said:

lincroft1710 said:

The VOA deal with CT banding, not the council.


If the property was deleted from the Valuation List, then it  becomes a "new" dwelling (NB not "new build") when it is re-entered in the VL and is valued as it stands. Therefore it is not a case of the existing band being reviewed as the dwelling had ceased to be banded.

@lincroft1710 - yes that makes sense - however should the council have deleted it from the valuation list? Looks to me like a strange way of setting the tax to zero....

That is a good question, as I am the same owner, should they have deleted me from the system in the first place?  If anyone has any answers...would be appreciated.

Thanks

lincroft1710

You can appeal the new band if you are within the 6 month time limit, but you have to supply evidence to support your appeal for a lower band and you cannot use the neighbours' houses to which you have referred.


As I have previously posted, what has happened is correct in law. If your home was incapable of being used as a dwelling then it should be deleted from the Valuation List. When it is re-entered the band has to reflect the 1991 value of the dwelling at the date of re-entry, so all alterations, extensions etc have to be included.

BarelySentientAI

S_Stevie said:

DE_612183 said:

I'm not sure - but deleting the property from the council tax list is a clerical process issue that the council have.

If they say they cannot review the tax band until it's sold - how were they able to review it the first time around?

I agree with you - I think the Council have got it wrong - which Council was it - others may have similar experience.

Hi

Thank you  for your reply.

I am with Charnwood Borough Council Leicestershire & I think it was rebanded via VOA from my plans submitted to the Council.

Makes no sense to me if they clearly state, if you move out whilst work is being carried out, your band will not change until the house is sold, but my argument is there was not a sale?  My mistake was to temporarily stop paying Council Tax, as surely that is the right thing to do if you are not living there, hence they deleted me from the Council Tax list & re-entered me with the changed band.

Had I have known this, I would not have stopped paying my Council Tax.  

Surely can't be right if my neighbour had a very similar extension & remained a C & they rebanded me an E.

Costly mistake, or do I have a case? If anyone has come across this before, please reply with your experience.

Thanks

An appeal is there if you think the banding of your property is wrong.

The banding of your property doesn't seem to be wrong, it's just been changed earlier than you expected.  Or are we wrong, and you think that the house as it is right now should be band C?

And as others have said - it's nothing to do with the council, so whatever they told you doesn't matter anyway.

uptdale

lincroft1710 said:

As I have previously posted, what has happened is correct in law. If your home was incapable of being used as a dwelling then it should be deleted from the Valuation List.

Surely just because the OP moved out during the alterations does not mean that the house was incapable of being used as a dwelling.  If the house was still habitable during the alterations (as the neighbour's house obviously was during similar alterations), then why would it be correct to delete it from the valuation list?