Council Tax Cost Cutting: reduce your band and grab any discounts Discussion Area

I have been trying to get my band corrected for at least the last 3 years, and have approached Mole Valley on numerous occasions, but every move is a dead end, that at times seems like a deliberate block. Phone calls after a long wait can be a transfer to another department and then just go into a hang up, I did speak to one lady who requested me to go down my road and select bungalows similar to mine, I found 5 plus 2 houses, that were all in a lower band, but was then told I could not use them because the were Data protected!
I had also taken it to the VOA department that looked into it, and got back a gobble Gook letter that Martin had mention about, that basically we had not appealed when we moved into our bungalow in 1982, when in fact they never existed. So I did not meet the circumstances to oppose it.
Then after contacting them, I was told by email my appeal was not at the correct stage to appeal to the VOA, when I did get their email, I had 3 months to reply, but my husband was dying, and actually one month was spent up and down to the hospital, and then he died, so other things apart from the grief took over including the funeral arrangements ct, so I missed the return date. My bungalows value in 1991, that we bought in 1982, paying £67000, was valued at, £117,829 and then again later to £158.977 both by Nation Wide, but it does go up a lot each time you reassess it.
What I can say, is that in my road, that almost all were bungalows when we move in, are now houses, and the price range is between 1.Million to 1.5 Million, and all are G band, including my bungalow!!!8230;
I also tried to get advice from Fetcham residence association, but they were up able to help.
So anybody with ideas what to do now?
Thank you for any comments.

JennyG70 wrote: »

My bungalows value in 1991, that we bought in 1982, paying £67000, was valued at, £117,829 and then again later to £158.977 both by Nation Wide, but it does go up a lot each time you reassess it.
What I can say, is that in my road, that almost all were bungalows when we move in, are now houses, and the price range is between 1.Million to 1.5 Million, and all are G band, including my bungalows.

Nationwide House Price Index is inaccurate, usually undervaluing and cannot be relied upon. If it suggests your bungalow was valued at £158,977 in 1991, then just a 1% inaccuracy would put your bungalow over £160,000. Little point in looking at 2018 values and improvements carried out by current owners after 1 April 1993 cannot be reflected in CT bands.

Unless you can find a nearby bungalow of a similar age, size and style in a lower band, there's not a lot you can do. There is always the risk in doing this that the VOA will decide that bungalow is under assessed and increase its band!

ddks wrote: »

If a property has been extended by 10m2. The property has been sold twice since the extension was completed.
In what circumstances would the band be restricted?

What do you mean by restricted?

It is quite feasible that the extension would not have added enough value to warrant a band increase

I've never come the word "restricted" being used in connection with a CT band. My point that the extension would not have added enough value to warrant a band increase seems quite probable in this case. Or possibly very borderline so not considered to be worth the effort of increasing if a subsequent appeal would result in the band being reduced back to Band E.

However regard may be had to restrictive covenants and planning restrictions, so whether this is what the VOA were referring to.

Cannot remember what the approach should be regarding state of development etc, I can't remember it ever being used in the offices i worked in.