Challenging Council Tax Banding for New-Build in 2008

johnroberts2k

Hey all,

Need some advice and guidance. I purchased a 3 bedroom new-build property part of a new private development back in 2009. At the time all the properties on the estate had to be banded and all the 3 beds were banded as Band D and the 2 beds as Band C. My family members have much much bigger houses in the same borough and they are also on band D so always found it bizarre. I understand that the banding is based on what the house would have been worth in 1991 but since it’s a new-build, I understand this is some sort of guessing game. 

I understand that to challenge it I need to find similar houses in the area that are in a lower band but since all the houses in the estate were all banded together, they are all essentially on the same band.

I came across a tool on Nationwide’s website called the House price index. And when I go to this website and put my initial purchase price as the valuation price back in first quarter of 2009 and choose to compare to first quarter of 1991 it estimates the 1991 value as £79,474 and if I do second quarter of 1991 it says £80,251

Here is where it gets interesting. I had the property valued by purple bricks in 2018 just to see how much it’s worth and they valued it in November 2018 as 375,000 based on a neighbouring property few months prior that sold for 370,000 and if I put that valuation date in and amount into Nationwide’s house price index calculator. I get 1991 quarter 2 value of £62,556

I then decided to check a neighbour’s identical house that sold in April 2020 for 385,000 and when I put that into the calculator, the 1991 quarter 2 price shows as £63,081

So my question is, do I have a good argument to use the price index calculator to try and challenge my banding? 

What would you all recommend I should do to challenge this?

Any advice or suggestions would be really appreciated. 

Thank you 🙏 

lincroft1710

VOA won't accept HPI evidence, far too generalised. As there are only 8 bands and far, far more house types there will obviously be different size houses in the same band, e.g. 3 bed semi worth £70K in 1991 and 4 bed worth £85K, both would be correctly in Band D.


Look beyond your estate, you may find similar in Band C, but there is o guarantee the VOA will accept them. Your main problem is going to be the fact that your home's CT band has been established for over 15 years and bands of similar houses may have been unsuccessfully appealed