Mrs Lewie was googling today and decided we're paying too much
As expected I'm having trouble finding 1991 house prices - we did the on line calculator which suggests (with what we paid in 2002) our course would have a value of about £62k in 1991 - we are on a band E that suggests it should be between £88k - £120k
We are on a main road in a row of 8 houses the same (same postcode) all band E
50 yards up the same road (postcode change) all the semi's are D and all the detached are E.
Terraced houses 50 yards the other way are understandably band C.
Any tips or advice
Thanks
Last edited by lewie; 8th April 2016 at 16:27.
I tried and failed.... Still think I'm a band too high but all the houses in my road are different and despite showing lots of comparable examples they wouldn't shift. I ran into a wall of can't be arsed, but sometimes wish I'd appealed as would have been worth £35 pm every month.
I also tried and failed back in 2009, challenged on the basis of square footage being less than lower priced properties but got nowhere as you might expect with council money.
My sister-in-law did and succeeded on her flat in Leeds. It was fairly straight forward as the council agreed that she was paying too much compared to the similar flats in the surrounding buildings.
I tried and failed about 7 years ago. Council came and assessed the house. He quoted floor area and showed it was the largest in the street so therefore we deserved the higher tax band.
Yes, years ago when we lived in a small terrace hose in Haworth, took around nine months in all and it went in our favour, from memory they kept sending me letters regarding me having to attend some kind of hearing, yep no bother I'm up for that as the hearing date grew closer I received letters stating I could cancel the hearing any time I liked, "no I'll be there" a week before the hearing they wrote to me informing me they now agreed with my claim, bloody joke to be honest I even had some woman on the phone stating "don't you think it's better being in a higher band because it looks better to potential buyers when you come to sell your house" she got a flea in her ear for that comment.
This was back in 1993 from memory it saved us around £150 a year we lived there for nine years, I informed my neighbours of the results but they couldn't be arsed to do it.
Last edited by geran; 8th April 2016 at 19:15.
Never challenged it myself, but a colleague has and it sounded like a nightmare.
One quirky little thing I do know of however is when someone alters the property substantially, such as an extra bedroom or an extension somewhere this alters your council tax banding but not immediately, only when the property changes hands can the new council banding take effect, to the surprise of the new owners and they are no slouches at sorting *that* out!
Our neighbours did it last year and passed the details to us. The lady we dealt with was very helpful and we got moved down a band after about six weeks. The refund of excess payments from the last ten years or so was a nice bonus - about £4K IIRC.
Yeah, I did on a house in Yorkshire many years ago, late '90's. Really easy, just got in touch with the council with a letter, cited a bit of info about historical house prices and a few weeks later they agreed and knocked it down a band and backdated it until the purchase date.
I believe it's still at that band now.
I did, but my situation was somewhat different. I bought a plot of land (nothing on it whatsoever) and within weeks of the deal being completed I had a council tax demand for over 2K.
I got on the phone to them straight away and got it sorted.
The cheeky cow on the other side of the phone did tell me that they had assessed "the property" and that's what I should be paying though !
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Yes I did on a flat, managed to get it dropped from a C to a B argued that as it was a basement flat and the others were worth more and had greater benefits. From memory I had to speak to the VOA. Funnily enough the house I'm looking at buying is an E and I don't believe it should be so I may try my luck again.
B
I did a few years ago now. Produced lots of evidence that my property was in the wrong band, old valuations, the fact the neighbours property was one band lower and a larger property etc. The valuations office wouldn't budge so I got nowhere with it.
Last edited by midgetda; 9th April 2016 at 09:23.
I wouldn't dare - they might put it up!
Cheers,
Neil.
I did think that but there are no F bands near me - the house opposite has 7 bedrooms and is still an EOriginally Posted by Neil.C
challenged and failed.............
Proper hit and miss then, all the properties on my street are the same so ill keep me mouth shut and keep paying even though i hate the d.d. Going every month
My mother in laws next door neighbour challenged theirs on the basis that the mother in laws house was two bands lower and more valuable... Yes, you guessed it, they rebanded the mother in laws house instead.
Exactly this happened to me after moving into an extended house.
A few weeks later I had a letter from the council asking me to declare how many rooms of varying descriptions I had. Then they sent someone to survey my house and promptly put me up a tax band.
Yep, same for our current property.
Tried and failed partly... problem also being council office in Devon we dealt with and challenged then passed pillar to post with valuations office in Hampshire?
To keep brief... our whole family with my parents moved to former holiday cottages. Us in a 2 bed barn separated from Parents in a place knocked through - so of course purchase means revaluation.
had a kitchen one end and another kitchen/utility other end. Parents removed kitchen one end as they tried to charge...
yep... 3 lots of council tax....when valuer came round said can't have 2 kitchens... it's 2 houses....
(Did Milliband pay 2 lots of council tax for his 2nd kitchen?)
Previous owners got full residence changed from holiday use etc and had been paying Band D for 3 years or so....
Which we pointed out and said permission granted etc "nothing to do with them it's a different department"
Came back to revalue when kitchen out and he said no we still have to pay 3 lots "in case we put it back in after he left?"
We also said we have hardly any services, no street lights, police station,amenities etc as its a rural village so should move down a band anyway...he just said that because we have a pretty view we should pay more....
Final upshot was after a lot of paperwork was we got parents 4 bed place down to one band of D and our 2 bed barn to B instead of as one property which we argued as we share all utilities...it's an annexe but is detached....
overall it's ok - the 3 bed farmhouse (our only neighbour is band F) ..
A mixed bag you give it a go I guess...
Last edited by lordloz; 10th April 2016 at 12:22.
I tried and failed for one of my clients as we used a neighbour property for comparison.
The upshot of it the council said the banding was correct, but they then increased the neighbours house banding.
Yes I did and I won. I had the sale price of the house for the date required at the time and the council accepted this as evidence and put me down a band. I am the only house in the street of near identical houses that enjoys this luxury!!!!
From memory when we applied I'm sure the council stated that you can only apply once, regardless of the owner it was based purely on the property, if you apply and fail from then on no new owner can apply for the band changing, things may have changed now a days, it was back in the early 90's
Any ideas on how to find a sale price in 1991?
Quick and easy one...
http://nethouseprices.com
For 1991??
Just had a look at the form online for challenging your banding. One of the options to tick is if you became the tax payer within the last six months. Does this mean that if you moved into a property more than six months ago, you can't argue that you believe the banding is wrong unless there's been some material change in the property? We moved 17 months ago. I hadn't considered that the property might be in the wrong band. It's a semi-detached, same footprint as the neighbour but they have a garden twice the size, yet they're in a band lower than us, having looked into it on the back of this thread.
issues like this require citizens advice office. make an appointment with them and they will give the best advice. you are barking up the wrong tree asking a forum in such matters as this to be honest
I seem to remember a feature in the paper regarding challenging a council tax bill.
Apparently somebody appealed as all the properties in his road were in a lower band than theirs.
The upshot was that the council agreed re the error and put up the properties in his road to the same banding as his.
Bet he was popular!
Cheers,
Neil.
Unless things have changed, I think the process to challenge your banding is "easier" within the first six months of moving in to a property.
My mother in law wasn't best pleased when her neighbour did just this. Luckily for neighbourhood relations, it was only the MILs house that was affected.
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