Council tax "re-banding", garden has been sold off.
Discussion
Hi,
Just wondering if the fact my house now doesn't have the best part of an acre of garden attached to it (I bought it from the developers who have just built a new house in what was the garden) would mean I'm due for a council tax re-valuation/re-banding.
Currently paying roughly £2200 a year, the next band down is £400 less, and the next £700.
It's still the same house it would have been in '91 just considerably less land.
I've done a few checks on neighbors and they all seem a band or two lower than me, and interestingly the brand new house which is on the market for 3 x what I paid for mine is only one band above.
Worth the effort, or do the valuation office people "just say no"
Cheers
Just wondering if the fact my house now doesn't have the best part of an acre of garden attached to it (I bought it from the developers who have just built a new house in what was the garden) would mean I'm due for a council tax re-valuation/re-banding.
Currently paying roughly £2200 a year, the next band down is £400 less, and the next £700.
It's still the same house it would have been in '91 just considerably less land.
I've done a few checks on neighbors and they all seem a band or two lower than me, and interestingly the brand new house which is on the market for 3 x what I paid for mine is only one band above.
Worth the effort, or do the valuation office people "just say no"
Cheers
ILoveMondeo said:
Hi,
Just wondering if the fact my house now doesn't have the best part of an acre of garden attached to it (I bought it from the developers who have just built a new house in what was the garden) would mean I'm due for a council tax re-valuation/re-banding.
Currently paying roughly £2200 a year, the next band down is £400 less, and the next £700.
It's still the same house it would have been in '91 just considerably less land.
I've done a few checks on neighbors and they all seem a band or two lower than me, and interestingly the brand new house which is on the market for 3 x what I paid for mine is only one band above.
Worth the effort, or do the valuation office people "just say no"
Cheers
I'm sure it goes on the value of the property so it's worth a try.Just wondering if the fact my house now doesn't have the best part of an acre of garden attached to it (I bought it from the developers who have just built a new house in what was the garden) would mean I'm due for a council tax re-valuation/re-banding.
Currently paying roughly £2200 a year, the next band down is £400 less, and the next £700.
It's still the same house it would have been in '91 just considerably less land.
I've done a few checks on neighbors and they all seem a band or two lower than me, and interestingly the brand new house which is on the market for 3 x what I paid for mine is only one band above.
Worth the effort, or do the valuation office people "just say no"
Cheers
The only downside to this is if they revalue the property and find it should be worth more.
It took Wiltshire Council less than two weeks after purchase to inform us that the recently-extended property needed to be reassessed.
I wasn't shocked to find it had moved up a group - now paying 50% more than I did in London for half as many refuse collections, tiny bins, no street lighting and no gritting in the winter...
Still the best move I've ever made though
I wasn't shocked to find it had moved up a group - now paying 50% more than I did in London for half as many refuse collections, tiny bins, no street lighting and no gritting in the winter...
Still the best move I've ever made though
Gave the valuation office a call, a nice lady pointed me in the direction of a fairly well hidden link on their website to submit a request to have it re-valued.
She said that it sounded like a good reason for revaluation but it'd be down to the local office.
Even insisted in hanging on the phone to help with the form.
Very painless, fingers crossed they agree with me!
She said that it sounded like a good reason for revaluation but it'd be down to the local office.
Even insisted in hanging on the phone to help with the form.
Very painless, fingers crossed they agree with me!
Zombie thread ahoy!
Did a search to see what came up. Wondering if anyone has more experience of this than I do and this came up. Thought it worth posting here as the process for us has not been as simple as described in this thread!
Bought house March last year. Plot at bottom of garden had been sold and house construction started. This fact meant that the house was considerably less valuable and thus in our price range. After a couple of months, it occured to us that maybe this could affect the council tax. Then we had a baby and kind of forgot about it.
Anyway, other half got around to appealing for an evaluation of the council tax band. Provided enough evidence of similar properties being in lower bands. I'm no expert but seems pretty inarguable to me!
Reply has come today and basically they have dismissed "our proposal" as "invalid" because we waited longer than six months after starting to pay to appeal. Apparently this is the law. I went through the appeal process my self and could see no mention of this. We missed that six month deadline by about seven weeks.
Very frustrating as I'm convinced that we should be dropped down at least one band, if not two. Their reply made it clear that the appeal itself was invalid due to the time frame. As in, the evidence wasn't even considered or looked at - just an automatic "invalid" put on it.
I have e-mailed them querying this. I pointed out that this law is not forthcoming anywhere and is it really reasonable to expect laymen like ourselves to know this? And do we really have to accept this council tax band that we believe to be wrong for as long as we now live in the house because we missed a deadline by a matter of weeks? If we live in this house for a decade then the difference will be many thousands of pounds.
Anyone come across this before?
Did a search to see what came up. Wondering if anyone has more experience of this than I do and this came up. Thought it worth posting here as the process for us has not been as simple as described in this thread!
Bought house March last year. Plot at bottom of garden had been sold and house construction started. This fact meant that the house was considerably less valuable and thus in our price range. After a couple of months, it occured to us that maybe this could affect the council tax. Then we had a baby and kind of forgot about it.
Anyway, other half got around to appealing for an evaluation of the council tax band. Provided enough evidence of similar properties being in lower bands. I'm no expert but seems pretty inarguable to me!
Reply has come today and basically they have dismissed "our proposal" as "invalid" because we waited longer than six months after starting to pay to appeal. Apparently this is the law. I went through the appeal process my self and could see no mention of this. We missed that six month deadline by about seven weeks.
Very frustrating as I'm convinced that we should be dropped down at least one band, if not two. Their reply made it clear that the appeal itself was invalid due to the time frame. As in, the evidence wasn't even considered or looked at - just an automatic "invalid" put on it.
I have e-mailed them querying this. I pointed out that this law is not forthcoming anywhere and is it really reasonable to expect laymen like ourselves to know this? And do we really have to accept this council tax band that we believe to be wrong for as long as we now live in the house because we missed a deadline by a matter of weeks? If we live in this house for a decade then the difference will be many thousands of pounds.
Anyone come across this before?
https://www.gov.uk/council-tax-appeals/challenge-y...
Government website doesn't mention a timescale, as far as I was aware you can appeal it at any time... what legislation are they using to deny this?
Government website doesn't mention a timescale, as far as I was aware you can appeal it at any time... what legislation are they using to deny this?
As written exactly in their reply: Council Tax (Alteration of List and Appeals) (England) 2009 Regulations.
They did mention an appeal process to an independent bosy in the letter but in the same sentence say that an invalid proposal (as they branded ours) would not be considered.
Some searching came up with this: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/reclaim/2013...
It appears that they are wrong. We will appeal obviously, but I will provide them with that link and see what they say. I think they're on a hiding to nothing with this one.
They did mention an appeal process to an independent bosy in the letter but in the same sentence say that an invalid proposal (as they branded ours) would not be considered.
Some searching came up with this: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/reclaim/2013...
It appears that they are wrong. We will appeal obviously, but I will provide them with that link and see what they say. I think they're on a hiding to nothing with this one.
FWIW, they denied my application, they were fairly convinced that even without the garden it wouldn't have fallen into a lower threshold. I had the option to appeal but couldn't be arsed.
They were really nice about it, chap from the valuation office spent a long time explaining the decision.
They were really nice about it, chap from the valuation office spent a long time explaining the decision.
SimonTheSailor said:
Blimey, finally some threads complimenting the Valuation Office !!
Don't see that very often !!
(Ex VOA employee
)
I appealed mine and they decided to put my neighbours house up a band (4yrs after they bought it) and told them it was because I had appealed mine!Don't see that very often !!
(Ex VOA employee
)Awaiting the tribunal date for my appeal still, but struggling to work out which houses to use as my argument!
I never worked on the council tax side of things, I was always commercial rates (but did do domestic when there was originally a domestic rating list many years ago.)
I *believe* that at some point in time you could appeal at anytime but then at some point it was restricted to 6 months after a purchase of property. May have reverted again though ?
If there has been an MCC (material change of circumstance) you can appeal again.
I *believe* that at some point in time you could appeal at anytime but then at some point it was restricted to 6 months after a purchase of property. May have reverted again though ?
If there has been an MCC (material change of circumstance) you can appeal again.
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