Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

Yesterday I had my weekly email from Martin Money saving tips etc. and noted on there was about your council tax and checking you are in the correct band as some people are due thousands.

Since me and drew moved in to our appartment/flat (whatever you want to call it) nearly 2 years ago, I always though that the band we were in was stupid as for a 2 bed appartment we where classed as the same band my sister's semi detached 3 bedroom house is! However I never did anything about it!

On this email that I had yesterday you can check what your neighbours banding is.... low and behold we are the only ones on band b.... every other property in our complex is in band a!

So my task this morning is writing our appeal letter! Has anybody ever done this? if so have you got an example letter i can have? I have also done the second check where they ask you to input the most recent sold price of a similar property and that also came out at band a..... so we have a good chance of this working, but I just need to write the letter correct.


O and if anybody else wants to check what you and your neighbours banding is it's here

Thanks

Lily :D

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

Yes, my elderly mother moved into a single bedroom apartment in a brand new retirement complex. Small is not the word. Can only fit a single bed, one 2 seater sofa and a minuscule table in there.

Imagine our surprise to find she was on band C, the same as my 3 bed semi. After getting the council to investigate. she was downgraded to A. But all her neighbours in identical apartments had to individually apply, they would not do it en mass for the block.

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

Just checked on that website and my house is band D all my neighbours are on Band C.

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

here is the article on Martins money saving expect... you can also check the valuation calculater if you get the same band on both its worth a appeal from what I read. It is also worth an appeal if your neighbours are different even tho your properties are the same.

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

Thanks, we are renting though so dont know the value of the property. Our house has been extended so that could be the reason but Im sure some of the neighbours I checked have similair extensions. worth looking into.

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

you don't need the value of the current property, you use a site like this which will give you the prices that recently sold houses went for type the year and month of sale in the calulator on martins website and will tell you the estimated value of the property back in 1991.

on that website you of course have to pick a similar property to yours within your street.

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

Cool I will have a little recce round the street tonight and check it out.

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

Ooo...all the flats in my street are A, and we are B...but then one unlucky sod is C....what to do what to do!

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

If I said anything they'd put me up a band!

A friend of mine had a new house built about 10yrs ago, and when the person from the council came round to do the banding it turned out they were on their last week in the job before being made redundant..........he is on at least one band lower than he should be. ;)

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

We had this in reverse in the last house but one, from the street it looked tiny and they put in in band B, but it was much bigger than it looked and should have been in D. We didn't appeal:D

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

Just checked on the government website and my tax is ok ( B ), but next door is band C. Might have a friendly chat tonight when he gets home. Everyone else along the street is B.

Ste.

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

You do know the Timelords only invented the Tardis as part of an Elaborate Tax scam dont you! :)

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

That link doesn't work for me Lily. Can you add the full address please

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

it's not working for me now Messie either (maybe we have crashed it)

anyway it is

www.voa.gov.uk and then click on the council tax part on the home page

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

I have the welsh councils, were on fix bands based on where we live and NOT on the value of the house, meaning that we're paying over the odds all the time with no way to get it reduced.

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

I doubt that very much, there was a re-valuation exercise a few years back in Wales and that based the CT band on the value of the houses. Many people were successfully able to appeal their new banding.

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

http://www.saa.gov.uk/

For us scots

No use for me band F

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

We had a knock on the door earlier this year.:mad::mad:

"I see you've converted the garage into a room, and added a conservatory. Can we make an appointment to re-evaluate the property."

Now Band E!:(

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

they're going to update the banding in 2015/16 guessing its going to go up loads, would rather them do it this year as they'd planned.

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

Does my nutt.. I wasn't about in Poll tax days but it sounds a better system..

If mine goes up thats it.. Im out the country..

fukin place

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

The bands are based on relative values, not absolute values. It's the media getting it wrong again for impact's sake. A band A property should still be Band A after re-valuation, it's only likely to go up/down a band if the value has gone up/down in relation to other properties. Like Brian with his new room in the garage and conservatory made it more valuable relative to how it was before the improvements, thus a higher banding.

If they just moved properties up the bands because property values in general have increased we'd all end up in band G or whatever is the highest band in the end - and that's not fair and won't happen.

You are right though, poll tax was a much fairer system IMHO.

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

was going to say 'if it's done on outright price that is', that's good news -cheers for that.

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

Yup, but the masses didn't like it and they spoke out / rioted!

Be careful what you wish for...

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

as an update, I sent our letter off last thursday, in the post today was a letter to say they have accepted we have a case for appeal and it shall be looked at and reviewed and we shall know the outcome within two months :D

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

Those who never paid for anything rioted because it suddenly cost them to be a member of society. The current system is grossly unfair, everybody get services but only a few pay to provide them.

My next door neighbour :- husband wife and 3 kids all work, their joint income is probably twice my family joint income. but we both pay the same. My son on minimum wage is paying the same as me and has about 1/10th of our joint income. So unfair

Re: Wrong Council Tax Band?!
 

No the skivers and neer do wells rioted. A lot of those were 'travellers' (not Romanys) who travelled around in converted buses and claimed the dole to fund it - because they did not have a house they never paid the old Rates, but this was a personal tax and they had to pay it, so they got ****ed off. There were a number of other groups who were badly affected due to **** poor planning, for instance students and old folks. Eventually the government got systems in place to protect those groups, but by then they had lost the argument.

Families like mine with one wage coming in and mum at home looking after kids loved it. Those single people living on ordinary incomes in their own home loved it.

The idea was totally sound IMHO but was a PR disaster for the government. They never successfully countered the accusation that it was a tax to allow one the right to vote. This was mainly because they used the electoral register to draw up who was liable. This is how it became known as the Poll Tax but was in fact called the Community Charge, the antis did such a good job that their point has become the historic name for the scheme.