Increased Council tax banding 40 years later

We had the same 2 years ago

Because you are now being charged the correct band. You were previously paying less than others who have the same type of house and now you are paying the same as other people who have the same type of house. That's perfectly normal and fair. I can't see a single wrong with this.

I’ve just checked our house. https://www.gov.uk/council-tax-bands

We bought it as a 2 bed and have extended to a 3 bed - council website states Improvement Marker = Yes

I moved into a new house and now pay band D. My best friends house is bigger than mine but because it hasn’t been rebanded it’s a band A.
I think there needs to be a national shake up rather than just pockets like you’re experiencing. It’s not fair on those paying correctly by modern standards.

The timelines on this don't make sense. If the extension was done 40 years ago in 1986, then it would have been assessed at 1991 for council tax including the extension. So it shouldn't have needed to be reassessed.

I’d be annoyed at my conveyancer/myself for not doing the due diligence.

It has just taken me ninety seconds to see which houses on my street have an improvement marker.

At some point they’ll have to change the council tax system anyway because it isn’t an equitable system and most of us don’t pay enough, considering huge swathes of the population have chosen to make the council responsible for their care needs later in life.

Could you put in a challenge based on neighbouring properties of similar size being the original band? Assuming they are. Use Martin Lewis guide, it’s brilliant.

OP you can appeal the rebanding.

In my circumstances I purchased a house at band F, did my research and after much persistence it was rebanded as an E.

Don’t sit back and be passive about this. I had to fight the valuation office but with a surveyor I instructed the VO eventually backed down!

The Council does not band houses - the Valuation Office Agency does. The Council then has to bill based on what’s in the valuation list.
The VOA can revalue when a property changes hands.
You can make an appeal to have your banding reduced but this can take ages and be aware that they can decide to increase the band further as part of the appeal.

We extended our house and knew it would be re banded when we sold. When we did sell, I informed viewers that it was likely to go up.

The house we bought had had a small extension. A few months after we moved in, a representative from the council called round to assess the property. Fortunately the extension didn't increase the square footage of the house by enough to affect the band.

I understood that when you buy a property, they can shift it up one band, if changes have been made by the vendors since they bought it. It happened when I bought our house. You can challenge it if you feel you have a strong case, but if the previous owners have improved or extended their house while living there, the council tax wouldn’t have changed until the house was sold, no matter how long ago it was done.

It is common practice to reband after a sale, but given that the extension was already there when the property was originally valued from what you're saying, I would imagine you would have reasonable ground to challenge it. Is the banding out of step with other equivalent properties locally?

Money Saving Expert has good information on challenging banding more generally which would be a good place to start.

It is government legislation and must be adhered to by the Council. They don't make the rules.

Unfair definitely but I guess many taxes aren't exactly fair.

We have paid more than our neighbours in similar-sized houses for decades. If we ask to be reassessed, the risk is they are moved to our band and we stay the same. We haven’t done it but it does annoy me that they pay less.

You get advised when you do an extension that the council tax band may be re-evaluated/increase at the point of sale. I thought this was pretty well known but obviously not! That's one of the reasons that people extend rather than moving.

I do think that your conveyancer should have picked it up as I assume you got the signed off documents from building control

This just happened to us and we were equally shocked. We bought our house 15 months ago and the extension was completed over 20 years ago. The registered owner change at Land Registry seems to have been the prompt.

Council tax is based on the idea that people with bigger / more expensive housing should pay more. Just like income tax. If your house is extended it is bigger (and presumably more expensive) than a neighbour with no extension. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to be in a higher band. Seems odd that the review is at point of sale, but I’d bet that the government don’t want to discourage people from improving their own homes for quality of life (rather than resale value) reasons.

I would have thought that when the solicitor carried out the searches, and found out that the property had been altered by the current owner/from the original deeds, then they would check to see if there is an improvement marker. Maybe not, but it seems a natural route for those in the know.

Banding reviews aren't carried out when improvements happen as houses change so much it would trigger 100s and 100s of thousands of requests a year, which is unmanageable, but I agree a buyer generally wouldn't have a clue and it should be spoken about in the sale process.

I only looked into it as I was helping family out with a question as to why one family member who lives in a tiny two bed bungalow is paying the same band as the other family member who lives in a 5 bed 3 bath detached. I found out it was because the family member in the large house had extended their house extensively 40 years ago and then never moved.
I think they should put something on the sale information really. Rather than just state the current band.

thats awful! just another money grab! what band will you be now?