Council tax banding

[CharlieH89]

Just a quick one as I know nothing about council tax bandings other than it goes off the value of the house in April 1991.

My house is in band C, £52,000-£68,000 back in 1991.

The only data on sold houses in my Avenue goes back to 1996, one house selling for £46k and one for £47k.

So band B is £200 a year cheaper.

Would have houses been valued more in 1991 than 1996? Is there any reason my house would be in Band C now when there is no data before 1996?

[Ian Geary]

Hi there

There will have been data in 1991 when it was originally banded.

The voa (or whoever) then use a series of tables to convert new built, or improvements to houses back to 1991 values.

There might have been a dip in house prices mid 90s, but I was too busy listening to bad indie music, playing wolfenstein 3d and taking gcses to notice.

To query your valuation you could start with your council and then see where they send you?

Hth

Ian

[CharlieH89]

Thanks for the reply Ian.
I will speak to the council and I’ll update the thread when I receive a reply.

[silentbrown]

Short answer, yes they took a pretty big hit around then. Early 1990's recession, Black Wednesday, last days of Thatcher etc.



Try this. https://www.nationwide.co.uk/about/house-price-ind...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_1990s_recessio...

[PF62]

CharlieH89 said:

The only data on sold houses in my Avenue goes back to 1996

If you want to know what they were selling for in 1991 then go to your local library and take a look at the archive local newspapers - they usually have them on microfiche - and browse the property pages.

That is what I did to get the evidence to get my banding changed.

[CharlieH89]

PF62 said:

CharlieH89 said:

The only data on sold houses in my Avenue goes back to 1996

If you want to know what they were selling for in 1991 then go to your local library and take a look at the archive local newspapers - they usually have them on microfiche - and browse the property pages.

That is what I did to get the evidence to get my banding changed.

Thanks for that. I'll have a look next week.
It seems I have to call up to request a review.

[silentbrown]

CharlieH89 said:

Thanks for that. I'll have a look next week.
It seems I have to call up to request a review.

I suspect this isn't going to be easy for you.

Land registry data is here. http://landregistry.data.gov.uk/app/ukhpi/browse?f...

It's not broken down fully by county/property type until '95/96, but it shows that for England generally, property prices were up to 10% lower in early '96 compared with April '91 - which means that a £47K '96 sale could well have been close to £52K in '91. You'd need more than a couple of sales figures to verify this, and remember that (as with cars) advertised prices aren't a great guide to the actual prices paid, which is what matters.

Check your banding with your neighbours. If it's higher (and no work has been done on your house which could boost its value) then you'd have a case. If you're all in the same band, then I suspect little chance.

I managed to get our last house dropped a grade, but that was a recent barn conversion where the exterior square footage was a very poor guide to amount of usable space.

Here's the process. https://www.gov.uk/challenge-council-tax-band

[CharlieH89]

It probably won't be
I'm curious as to why the house a few doors down is the lower band however and when that got changed, as it's the same house pretty much.

I don't think the valuation is wrong as their was a recession in the late 90s' but it's worth an ask.

[silentbrown]

CharlieH89 said:

I don't think the valuation is wrong as their was a recession in the late 90s' but it's worth an ask.

Definitely. I can't remember how far the correction can be backdated, but we certainly got a couple of years of the difference credited to our council tax bill.

However if you've added massive extensions to the house, I think it's possible the band could be revised up...!

[matt666]

Be careful with asking for a review. It could go down, but they could also decide that both you and your neighbours need to be in a higher, not lower band.

[PF62]

silentbrown said:

You'd need more than a couple of sales figures to verify this, and remember that (as with cars) advertised prices aren't a great guide to the actual prices paid, which is what matters.

The argument I made was that at that point in time houses were not selling for more than the advertised price, so the advertised price was the maximum.

In my case the VOA came back and argued that the properties I was comparing against were slightly smaller than mine (mine wasn't built until long after 91 so I needed to find comparable examples), so I then came back with other alternatives that they accepted - oddly it was the larger 1970s properties which seemed to have been allocated lower bands.

It is helpful there is a list the banding of all properties - www.gov.uk/council-tax-bands so you can actually see what banding the neighboring properties fall into.

silentbrown said:

Definitely. I can't remember how far the correction can be backdated, but we certainly got a couple of years of the difference credited to our council tax bill.

My understanding is the correction goes back all the way to the introduction of the tax or when the property was built. I certainly got a cheque covering 10 years worth of overpayments.

[Edible Roadkill]

I contested my house banding when I last moved as it had went up from a e to a g, but in real terms the new house wasn’t all that bigger, I’d gained one bedroom.

My house is also a band higher than a few other houses in the area which are massive.

It took them months to reply and sent a load of gibberish about a house 3 miles away and it’s size being comparable and it’s value in 1991. A complete fob off so I left it there.

It’s all very strange and largely unfair system.

[silentbrown]

PF62 said:

My understanding is the correction goes back all the way to the introduction of the tax or when the property was built. I certainly got a cheque covering 10 years worth of overpayments.

It certainly can't go back further than when you moved in.

[V8RX7]

I've challenged it and won in the past - shame I can't remember what I did because now I want to challenge Dad's

In his case he has sold off land and buildings since it was originally valued and as he's already in the top band he's got nothing to loose.

[number2]

I challenged my banding when i last moved - I remember on the phone, a lady justified the banding by saying "well, it was advertised as luxury"

Anyway, applied in writing and got moved down a band. I thought it could have been one more band but the additional effort would have been unlikely to bear fruit.