Managing expectations of Council Tax rebanding

Particlephysicsnerd

I have just read the latest MSE email and I do feel there are two things Martin should be aware of and could possibly refer to in his articles regarding Council Tax?
The first is the glacial speed the Government works at. Our son lives in one of 6 identical houses and the banding ranges from D to F. (Interestingly the Band D properties are the ones that have been extended!) In November 25 he completed the forms and sent his (compelling) evidence. He chased it gently in Jan 26 and was told that cases were taking over a year to even be looked at! I really feel Martin should warn folk that they will not receive any quick responses? Alternatively does Martin know of any quicker route that he should be sharing.
The second is the fact that new build homes are in just as much chaos! We have two identical new build houses in our village. Sat side by side with identical everything and one was Band D and the other Band F! This similarly took months and inevitably the Band D was increased to a Band F. An appeal followed and now both are Band D - but it took several years to sort out. Martin does allude to the fact that banding can increase and in this case the family who were Band D were furious with their neighbour for contesting the banding. Perhaps Martin could advise neighbours to get together first of all as these two families are now totally estranged!

Exodi

Particlephysicsnerd

I really feel Martin should warn folk that they will not receive any quick responses? Alternatively does Martin know of any quicker route that he should be sharing.

I couldn't tell you, and as Martin doesn't post here, I suspect he couldn't either! But FWIW I was able to get real-time responses to comparables from calling the VOA directly.

Particlephysicsnerd

Martin does allude to the fact that banding can increase and in this case the family who were Band D were furious with their neighbour for contesting the banding. Perhaps Martin could advise neighbours to get together first of all as these two families are now totally estranged!

I don't know what you would want him to suggest - you said yourself it alludes to the fact that banding can increase as well as go down. In many cases, the anonymous nature actually prevents estrangement (except where it's obvious who the complainant was, such as in your case).

Honestly, how do you think it would go down if you gathered up all the neighbours on a street and told them you were planning to contest your personal council tax band, at the risk of increasing all of theirs (which is a sacrifice you're willing to make)? I suspect you might be lynched!

Think of that street in Hull: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-34550769

Woodstok2000

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82092943#Comment_82092943

Off topic, but the picture in that article on the street in Hull could have come straight out of the Angry People in Local Newspapers forum. A classic of the genre, excellent work!

lincroft1710

Our son lives in one of 6 identical houses and the banding ranges from D to F. (Interestingly the Band D properties are the ones that have been extended!)

They cannot be "identical houses" if some have been extended

I'm ex VOA and about 30 years ago, had a phone call from a CT payer complaining that they and their neighbour were in Band F but the 3 identical houses round the corner were in Band D. Unfortunately in this case a sale of one of the Band D houses proved Band F was correct and so the Band D houses were each increased to Band F.

There was no way of ascertaining why the 3 were originally placed in Band D and could only attribute it to human error