Council Tax Band - is it worth appealing

FrozenGiraffe

My house was first purchased on 16th April 1991 for £120,000 and is band F for council tax. 

I moved in last year and challenged my band as other houses on the same road and the next road which are of the same design are band E. Two of these houses were band F, but have been changed to E - i don't know when the change was made, but assume it was the result of a successful challenge.  
There are only 5 houses on this estate of the same style.

Many other neighbouring properties are also band F, but they are a different style, layout and look very different and I believe they were the more expensive houses at the time of development. 

My challenge has been rejected, based on neighbouring properties being in band F, but I believe their comparison has been with direct neighbours rather than with the same style houses, despite my providing full details of these when submitting my claim.

Although based on the 1991 sale price of my house it should fall within band E, it is only £1 below the threshold. I believe my house was one of the first sold on the new development and sold at the upper end of asking price. I think the value of the property sits comfortably within band E, evidenced by the fact that the other houses of the same style built afterwards are all band E.

Is this a strong enough argument to base an appeal on. Does the fact the house sold for £1 less than the band threshold help or hinder my appeal?

Grateful for everyone's opinions, and if anyone has experience of appealing please let me know how you think thus could be likely to go.

lincroft1710

I'm ex VOA and on the evidence of that sale I would say it is a borderline case.. If your home has had had any alterations prior to your purchase, these would probably be enough to keep it in Band F. Also if there were any  other sales of identical house types in 1991 at higher prices, then this could indicate Band F may have been correct. It is worth appealing however. 


It is to be expected that there will be larger houses correctly in the same band

FrozenGiraffe

I've put in my appeal, but now need to gather evidence. The Valuation Tribunal website states that I can ask the VOA for sales information, but I can't find any details of how to contact the VOA to request this information - any advice?

lincroft1710

VOA won't disclose sales evidence until there is a date for a Tribunal Hearing

FrozenGiraffe

Another question - I have submitted my appeal and I'm putting together my evidence whilst waiting for my tribunal hearing date. Does the following sound strong enough:

Main evidence I have is the April 1991 sale price of £120,000. Whilst this sits directly at the threshold between band E and F, the sale price does fall within band E. Where a sale lies on the threshold, the reasonable and fair interpretation would be to place the property in the lower band to avoid over-valuation.

As the sale took place only 2 weeks after the Antecedent Valuation Date this is reliable market value evidence.

Since the sale of my property in April 1991, other similar properties sold have been placed in band E.

Further more, I have evidence of 2 properties which are of the same character, style, design and layout to mine, which have had their Council Tax band reduced from F to E, therefore setting the Tone of the list.

Does this sound ok?

Also, with regards to the properties which have already been changed from band F to E, I am only assuming that this is the result of successful challenges - is there anyway to find out (I have already searched previous tribunal hearings on the Valuation Tribunal website), or would properties have their bands reduced for any other reasons (the properties have had no major changes to them since being built)

FrozenGiraffe

I'd be really interested to hear views on whether or not the evidence above is enough.

lincroft1710

Sounds quite logical  reasoning to me. Do you have documentary evidence of the £120K sale price?


The VOA can reduce a band at any time if they consider it is too high. The Valuation List entry for a property would indicate if it had been reduced following a VT decision

FrozenGiraffe

Yes, the title register shows the price the property first sold for when new, which was in April 1991. 

The other properties were built later, between 1993 and 1995.  Two of these were banded E and the other 2 were F and at some point amended to E.