Council tax banding - should I claim?

melt71

I live in a large estate all with different houses. Our particular street has;

2 bed semis (like mine) which are listed as band c

3 bed semis which are also listed as band c (they typically sell for about £20k+ more than the 2 beds and a lot of them have garages etc)

1 or 2 bed flats which are listed as band b


I've checked that the bands for the 3 bed semi which is directly opposite mine is a c and also the others surrounding us are band c's. I don't really understand how they can say that we should all be c's when their houses are bigger and more expensive than ours.

Also, I've done the valuation thing using the websites but it's rubbish! I know for a fact that when my ex husband bought this house in the mid 90's it was only valued at about £51k but they are saying that in 91 it was valued at £63k. No way! How can I prove it though?

I've got the land registry deeds and it doesn't mention this previous sale - only my purchase from my ex husband 2 years ago. So I'm stumpted!

Do you think it is worth claiming with the above information and see what they say?

vivatifosi

Hi melt,

Its a difficult thing the banding issue. Where I live the three and two beds are often in the same band. I agree that it isn't fair, but unfortunately the two beds fall in the bottom of the band and the three bands in the top of the same band. Its something that will always come up unless the government changes the system to one say part based on value and part based on floor area.

In terms of the house prices, the initial price paid is often on the originals of the deeds (rather than what you get online from the Land Reg), but if it isn't you should be able to get the initial price paid for your house from the VOA. You will also find that when estates are built there is a lot of advertising in the local papers, so you should be able to get all the adverts from when the house was built.

Now the next point is that house prices were actually falling in 1991 and whether they had recovered by 1996 depends on what the circumstances were for your local area. I've had a look at the Halifax post towns data for Dorset and in pretty much all the main towns the market had recovered, so in my mind you have a good case.

However, working against you, you have the fact that you have lived there longer than six months and the other houses are valued the same. In short, the VOA is likely to say that their banding is correct. Try challenging by all means, but expect them to say that they are right.

Make no mistake, you face an uphill battle on this one, even though I think you're right! It will be much easier to get one of your neighbours who has lived there less than six months to challenge as they will have a right to a tribunal hearing, which you won't. But still, you have to put in a lot of work to get this to tribunal, believe me. If they win, you can make a valid appeal off of the back of theirs.