Council Tax re-claim

Workboy

Need urgent info or advice:

I have a court date next week having found I'm in the wrong band and can prove this. But:
1. the Valuation officers have appointed a Tax solicitor to act for them in the hearing.
2. They claim I did not object and make a claim by the cut off date of 1993 as in the law, and as such my claim is invalid!

I can find no reference to this 1993 law, but if this is the case, how is it others claims have been accepted via this site and its advise?

Help please...:mad:

vivatifosi

Hi Workboy,

I'm not 100% clear on your enquiry. It sounds like you have an Invalidity Tribunal date, but I don't understand the reference to a tax solicitor. I know IR Tax Solicitors can be present on CGT Land Tribunals but then I don't understand the reference to banding...

Assuming you are in England (as you referred to 1993)and talking about a Council Tax Bands, the VOA has to maintain the integrity of the list. However, if it disagrees with you and feels that the banding is incorrect (common when there are only a few £000 difference in your opinions), then your right to an impartial third-party appeal is through the Valuation Tribunal Service (VTS) to decide who is correct.

However, you only have a right to appeal your banding through the VTS under certain circumstances which are laid out in law. These can be seen at:

http://www.voa.gov.uk/council_tax/can_i_appeal.htm

If you have been in your house for a long time, you only have a formal right to appeal if the circumstances relating to the house have changed, or one of your neighbours has won a tribunal that could impact on your house.

So in answer to your question, how have others succeeded, firstly not everyone has. There are people on here who have been posting for years and have still not been successful. That doesn't mean that they never will be, just that they are still trying. Others, like me, appealed within six months of moving and were able to go to Tribunal to put our evidence. Others were very lucky, they were able to phone up the VOA and get their band changed over the phone.

If you are sure that your evidence is compelling then you have a few options.
First, you can double check whether any neighbours have won appeals in the past six months and appeal off the back of theirs. Make sure you put their details in the appeal or it may still be declared invalid. Second, if none of your neighbours have appealed, wait till someone else moves in to the same house type and get them to appeal to the VOA. If they win, it opens a window of opportunity.

If you feel really aggrieved, then go visit your MP and ask them to take the case up on your behalf. Once you've exhausted all complaints procedures with the VOA they and the Parliamentary Ombudsman are the remaining option.

However, you said you have really good evidence that you are in the wrong band. Really good evidence would be that your or an adjacent house sold for less than the band price on or around the period of Jan-Apr 1991, or for a price some way off the end of the band/start of next band in the months prior to or after this. If the good evidence is from an online house price calculator the VOA and the VTS won't recognise it.

If I'm mistaken, and you do require info on Lands Tribunals, you may want to start at:
http://www.voa.gov.uk/instructions/chapters/capital_gains_tax_ch_1a/sect6/frame.htm


Good luck moving forward