Help me understand council tax

[ChangeTheProphecy]

We’re looking at moving house and I can’t get my head around council tax. Our house is 15 yrs old, outskirts of a town, 4 bed but not particular big. DH has for a while been saying that our council tax band seems quite high for the house we have.

Looking on Rightmove it seems that older houses seem to be on a lower band than newer houses, even those that are significantly bigger and worth a lot more.

Was council tax effectively set in 1991 and since then councils have almost free rein as to what band to put houses in and is there any likelihood that there will be a resetting?

Council tax bands have never been reset since they began. There's been talk in the past about resetting them but nothing as yet. A 4 bedroom house would be charged more than two or three bedroom. Can't explain why newer properties might be in a higher price band than older ones though 🤔

Our 3 bed is Band A as it was army quarters.
The 2 bed flats down the road are B or C.
Its bonkers.

Councils do not allocate properties to bands. That is done by the Valuation Office. Councils just collect the tax based on the band that has been set.

If you think the band for a property is wrong you can challenge it (but be careful as it could go up not down!)

www.gov.uk/government/organisations/valuation-office-agency

Our house was recently valued at approx 8-900k is Band G. A nearby house for sale at 1.85million is Band E.

If I remember correctly the bands were set from a roadside drive by perspective.

Council tax banding most definitely needs change.

I know a couple of people who have successfully appealed against the banding of their houses. They provided evidence of other (similar) houses nearby that were a lower band.

No guarantees obviously, but might be worth a try.

It's the same round here, all the older properties are in much lower bands than those built since the valuation date. My suspicion is that the valuation wasn't actually back-dated but was based on the valuation when built. My 2 bed flat is in F whereas older 4 bedroom houses worth 2-3 times are much are often in D and E.

Thanks for replying, it does all seem quite adhoc. Our house is band E and seems to align with the others on the road so I don’t think I would be able to successfully challenge it. But then older houses that I’ve looked at, which almost twice the square footage, worth £350k more and in nicer parts of town are also a band E or at a push band F. I really think it needs reforming but don’t want to move somewhere and then have our mortgage calculations go out the window because our band changes and we’re paying £100/month more than we budgeted for.

It isn’t ad hoc so much as that council tax valuations are based on what the property would have sold for in 1991. Obviously, a lot can have happened since then: what was the nicer / worst part of an area then may very well have changed or reversed, or a house in one street may now be in catchment for excellent schools which a nearly identical house two streets away isn’t – this sort of change would be reflected in sale prices in 2024, but not valuations in 1991, hence why it sometimes looks “wrong” when you’re comparing properties.

If you bought a new house, the VOA would only seek to change the band if significant changes had been made to the property since its last sale which would affect its value - so if it’s a concern, ask vendors about any significant works (extension, annex, complete change to internal structure etc) they’ve carried out which could have that impact. You don’t need to worry about ordinary internal renovation.