Council tax banding - failure

fordjo

I tried to change my Council Tax from C to B, while one side of me my neighbours are band B the other side are a mixture of bands B & C. The reply I got from the valuation office that I was outside the period to apply for re-banding. The reason I gave tthe valuation office that my house was sold the previous occupier in 1988 for £28,000 (North west) and that my neighbours are a council tax band B. They've gave me a questionaire to fill but I think the questions apply to know not to what the house was line in 1993 (the date the valualtion office gave me). They gave me 4 weeks to appeal but what else can I tell them.

Unlucky

vivatifosi

Hi fordjo,

Actually, what you need to do is work out what the house price was worth on 1st April 1991, not 1993 which is when council tax came in. If they've told you 1993 then that's incorrect.

If your neighbours have been there a while and are friendly, I'd ask them if any of them bought their houses around early 1991 and if so, how much for. I'd also take pictures of your house and of those of your neighbours to show that yours is the same, even though the band is different.

If you don't get anywhere with the 1991 info, try a trip to your local library and see if they have the local papers in either hard copy or on microfilm. Have a look back through the house price ads and see how much the houses were selling for in 1991 and try to find some the same as yours. As these are asking prices, they would generally have sold for less, particularly as it was a tough market at the time.

Send everything that you get together back to them, and remind them that while you have lived there longer than six months they have a duty to maintain an accurate list.

If they still tell you you are out of time and don't agree with you after all this, ask them to substantiate why your house is valued differently to those of your neighbours, given that you have provided compelling evidence (the 1988 price, plus anything that you found out in your investigatinos) that it should not be in a higher band.

In short, make a nuisance of yourself, albeit in a nice polite way!