Query regarding council tax bill based on retrospective banding change (Scotland)

Vertig0

I had a question - I am being charged a bill for tax from Glasgow city council. I moved out of the rental property in question in 2019, at which point they had advised me there was 0 liability left in terms of taxes. So I queried what the bill is about, and they told me it is for a retrospective banding change (increase) from an assessment in 2024. Is the council within its rights to issue a backdated bill in this way?

lincroft1710

Vertig0 said:

I had a question - I am being charged a bill for tax from Glasgow city council. I moved out of the rental property in question in 2019, at which point they had advised me there was 0 liability left in terms of taxes. So I queried what the bill is about, and they told me it is for a retrospective banding change (increase) from an assessment in 2024. Is the council within its rights to issue a backdated bill in this way?

If the increased band is backdated to 2019 or earlier, then the answer is yes. I would say it is unusual for a CT band increase to be backdated though.

Vertig0

Unfortunately it is just that according to the correspondence I had with the tax department, after they'd initially just issued a bunch of letters I couldn't even access anymore. They gave me the assessors' email and tel details if I wished to query it further. Just a rather nasty surprise to realise I can be charged backdated tax for a property I had been renting 5 years ago owing to a retrospective band change, so wanted to check if it can be challenged in the first instance. I think I'll seek some legal advice on it to see whether there's any lawful basis to this in my case.

Vertig0

Just providing an update on this, in case it is of use to anyone who comes across a similar issue. I got in touch with the CAB, who highlighted that the legislation in question governing this is:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1993/355/made

And specifically 19(1), although I think it depends on why the re-assessment took place as 18(1) is vaguer and seems open to allowing for it. The council had forwarded my email to the band assessor and I also made a complaint. Not sure which prompted it, but the assessor has since realised this was backdated too far, so I believe this was probably triggered by a change resulting from a sale of the property, which indeed wouldn't allow for backdating that far. So luckily in my case the backdating was in error.