Council Tax Band Tribunal - is it worth appealing?

MarshMill29

Hello, I'm hoping for some advice please, regarding whether it's worth appealing a Council Tax Band change decision via the Valuation Tribunal England route.

My partner and I bought a 1930's 3-bedroom, 1 bathroom semi detached house in Bristol in July 2024; it was in Band C. In November we received a letter from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) stating a change to Band D, and our Council Tax bill amount changed accordingly. The VOA said the change was because the property had been sold, and they knew the previous owners had completed a single storey kitchen extension.

We appealed their decision straight away because, of the (approx.) 130 houses on our road, all of a similar style and age, only our house and one other (with 5 bedrooms and two bathrooms) are in Band D. All of the other houses remain at Band C.

We received a letter dated 2nd August 2025 via email from the VOA on 8th September 2025, stating their decision to reject our appeal, meaning our property would stay in Band D. We have responded to raise some questions with them, including why it took 5 weeks for the letter to be sent to us. This feels like a direct way of reducing the time we have to appeal via Tribunal (3 months, therefore by 2nd November 2025). 

We are considering challenging this decision with the Valuation Tribunal England but wonder if anyone else in a similar position has been successful in such a challenge? In the letter explaining their decision the VOA mentioned two other houses in our road being in Band D, but we can only find one other on the Gov.UK database; so this forms another piece of evidence. Most of the houses on our road have had extensions, and many have loft conversions (which ours hasn't), so we feel aggrieved to be moved to Band D! Thanks in advance for any advice.

Yorkie1

I don't know about success rates at tribunal, but are any of the Band C properties extended in the same way as yours, AND have been sold since the extension (planning portal may give a hint as to any application, and Right move previous info may also assist)?

As you have found out, it's the sale of a property which triggers a revaluation after extensions, not completion of the building work.

gm0

There may be a load pending sale.  And voa may not know about some - more dodgy extensions/conversions.  

But for those they do - they may be waiting with a list of C to Ds to do.  As sales transactions are reviewed. 
Those don't help you at all.

As upthread. If you can find *recent* sales. With the features. Done properly (PP/BC etc.).  Still in band C.  You may be able to trigger getting theirs raised as well.  Excellent for neighbour relations.  Or you may if you find a few such - have something more solid to attempt to challenge criteria interpretation and consistency thereof.  About your "upgrade".  Mistakes are not impossible.  Persistence may yet prevail.

VOA not getting around to doing it at all promptly for another address - isn't of itself a criteria not to upgrade this one.  The history of VOA criteria and how these have evolved and been litigated - is above my paygrade.

As I recall there is a worked at VOA prior forumite who may (hopefully) be along with genuine domain knowledge about successful and hopeless grounds for the appeal stage before long.  A forum search of VOA threads might turn up a name for you to DM.

My guess (and that's all it is) having not done it - is that you are probably stuck with it. 

But worth looking for the exceptions that have sold and remained in C. And taking it from there.

The system may not survive long past november. Who knows at this point.  SDLT and CT do seem to be in play along with a new property levy to refill the SDLT pot. Winners and losers.  

But existing VOA bands will likely play into CT. They are frit of full reassessment. Even if it's - long overdue.  I'll dig my "thatcher poll tax protest" coat out of the cupboard but I doubt it still fits.  My waist has gone from C to D as well.

lincroft1710

If the houses with extensions are the same age, type and size as yours and the extensions were carried out by previous owners some time ago, then these may support your case. When you check the bands of these houses, the letter "I" against the entry signifies there has been an extension but no band increase as yet. Remember it is you who have to prove your case and the VOA will be providing evidence to support Band D. If there are adjoining roads with similar houses then check their bands. 


As has been pointed out, by highlighting houses with extensions carried out by previous owners, which are not known to the VOA does run the risk of their bands being increased. 


I don't know if it is still the case, but when I was in the VOA, we would not increase a band following an extension and sale without good evidence to back up our decision. 


If you can find unextended houses of the same age, type and size as yours in Band C then this would help your case. 

MarshMill29

Thank-you for your informative and entertaining responses. We will do some research, as you suggest, to see if we can identify any recently sold properties, of a similar age and square footage to ours, which remain in band C, that could be offered as evidence...

MarshMill29

Hi, it's been a while since I last posted about this, but as was suggested, we were able to find other nearby properties sold within a couple of years of ours, of a similar age and square footage, which have had a similar extension, and which remain in Band C. So, we decided to take our case to a Tribunal, and have a date in April for our Hearing.

We've just received the evidence pack which the VOA are intending to bring to the Hearing, and we're perplexed by it, so thought we'd see if fellow forum member wisdom can help again, please.

The basis of their evidence is what the value of our property would have been in the early 1990's when CT was introduced. However, the earliest valuation they've obtained for our house is from 2005, yet they compare this to valuation data for other properties in the road from 1991/1992, which have a smaller square area. Is it worth us searching for the value of these other properties in 2005 to at least be comparing apples with apples?

The VOA seems to be saying that our house should always have been in Band D and they've only provided historical evidence, with no recent comparisons. They've also included a case from 1932 to set the context that "the correct course of action is to correct an error, not compound it by reducing a property in line with an error to maintain consistency." However, they don't explain why our property wasn't changed to Band D when it was last sold in 2005 to the owners before us.

We can't really 'compete' with this line of evidence as have no method of disproving the data provided by the VOA from that long ago. Our evidence is based on listing other nearby properties which are similar to ours (as outlined above), which have stayed at Band C, and querying why they've picked on us. However, now we've seen their evidence, we suspect the outcome of the Tribunal will be to keep us at Band D, and increase other properties in the locale to Band D too. We were always aware this could be a possible outcome.

My main question is whether to withdraw our appeal to save our time and energy, as we are now much less confident of the Tribunal panel agreeing with our position. Grateful for your thoughts if you've read this far!

lincroft1710

If you don't think you have a strong case and/or have no evidence to dispute that provided by the VOA then it would save time and trouble if you withdrew the appeal.