Unfair council tax for bungalows

fairness2024

It's not always possible to find out the cost of a property on 1 April 1991 unfortunately.

lincroft1710

fairness2024 said:

I just think that the way property was valued in the first place was wrong. I heard from neighbours, who were around at the time, that the assessors stood at the end of the road and classed all the properties the same band. I believe having a larger than average garden made a difference to the original banding but, in my opinion, that is not as important as living space; accommodating more adults.

In the past 30 years, most anomalies which occurred with CT bands have been sorted. Larger than average gardens rarely made a difference to the band. Most of the assessments were carried out by people working on their own or at the most in pairs, the miserly money the government paid to the contractors (mainly estate agents) wouldn't allow for them to go around in groups..

Grumpy_chap

fairness2024 said:

I live in a small, two bedroom bungalow in Croydon with one bathroom, classed as Band E.

I tried challenging this with the appropriate body years ago but it was rejected as the same type of properties in my area are all classed as Band E.  This is also the same band for some 4 bedroom properties in the area, how can this be right?

Now that the single occupant 25% discount is under threat, more and more pensioners are going to be affected. Can anything be done about this?

Why do you think the single occupant discount is under threat?

The band of properties was based upon the value on a fixed date.  In many areas, especially densely populated areas, the value of a small 2 bedroom bungalow can be similar to the value of a 4 bedroom house.  Proportionally, the bungalow takes up more land and there is often a high demand for what few bungalows exist because of more mature members of society wanting to remain in the area they know and love but also wanting to do away with the stairs that the family home comes with.

Any kind of revaluation would likely achieve very little.  The date of valuation is somewhat irrelevant as CT is a local charge and the property value will always remain in the same broad positioning of the housing stock of the area.