Council Tax challenge - Square meters and garage inclusion

segjeffery

I am in the process of challenging our council tax band and have a question about the square metre measurements. In the information on MSE website it says that you should only compare with houses whose square meterage are within 10% of yours (plus or minus). My issue is that we have an integral garage, which is included in our listed sq meterage, but the houses I am comparing ours to have a separate garage, which doesn't seem to be included. This means that those houses seem smaller than ours, but they are not. Is this something they would take into consideration, does anyone know?

MeteredOut

Are there no houses locally with the same layout as yours?

lincroft1710

Garage should not be included in the total area of the house and it would be extremely unusual if it has been

segjeffery

It is because it is an integral garage, I suppose. The houses on either side of us have the same layout, but they are in the wrong band too, which doesn't help!

MeteredOut

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82105951#Comment_82105951

Is it just the m2 that has got you to the conclusion that all 3 hours are in the "wrong band". If so, I'd say the other two being (presumably) in the same band as yours is just as likely to mean they're all correct.

How many rooms are in the houses you're comparing to (that have the lower band)? Are they in the same area? Are they the same type (detached, semi-detached, bungalow etc)?

lincroft1710

From where did you obtain the "listed sq meterage"? How old are these houses?

segjeffery

I got mine from the survey we had done when we bought the house and theirs from sales particulars from historic sales (from Govt. website).

lincroft1710

The problem is that there are 3 ways of measuring property, Gross External Area, Gross Internal Area and et Internal Area. The Valuation Office use GEA for houses and bungalows in calculating area for CT purposes and will not include the garage. If your survey included the garage in its stated area and/or did not measure to GEA, it is of little use to you. Similarly unless the other houses' areas have been calculated by reference to their GEA, they are equally of little use.

segjeffery

It's so tricky. The houses I am comparing to were built ten years after ours. I can't find any others built in the same year exept for semi's that aren't comparable. I'm struggling to understand why our three houses (ours and next door neighbours) are band G and all the others of the same size and number of rooms in the next road are Band F. They are all modest 4 bedroom houses. The only other ones in Band G are huge mansions with lots of acres. The only discrepency I could find is that ours seemed to have a bigger square meterage and I figured out that was because of the integral garage, but I may be wrong from what you are saying. Our house isn't bigger than the others if you don't include the garage. I don't suppose I'll get anywhere but the whole thing makes me angry, because we just can't afford to pay ofer £400 a month in council tax!

lincroft1710

So you didn't check the CT band before you bought the house? Presuming you're paying over 10 months, dropping to Band F would only save you about £50 a month, £12.50 a week which is around the price of 2 pints of beer in a pub.

When did you buy the house and how much did you pay, because that will give me an idea if a Band F would be feasible. Would suggest you check CT bands of houses for sale at a similar price to your purchase price..