Increased Council tax banding 40 years later

[Hectorsmother]

Posting on here for traffic.

We bought a house in October 2025 that had had an extension done in the 1980s.

For 40 years the house has been on band X, and we have continued to pay the same band for nearly 6 months. Council have written to say they have re-evaluated the property's value in 1994 and deemed it was worth more than they thought and therefore because of the sale we are now being moved up a higher tax band.

This feels utterly farcical and money grabbing from the council.

Yes thats the puzzling bit, all these properties with an apparent improvement market to them, why arent they acted on at the time?

Also Ive just checked our road, there is a house which has had a double story extension and gonen to the roof as well, its now a 6 bed rather than 3 bed, theres no improvement marker on it so thats is strange?

How does the VOA know about the immprovements? We had a conservatory for example, is that something that would put CTAX up?

Yeah, I see the frustration.

however many people have lived in it since the 80s have got away with paying it at a lower rate, but now they’re making you pay it at a higher rate.

It is annoying and it is money grabbing but that’s the thing with councils. Everybody has to play by their rules and they just do what they want. I hate my council so I certainly feel your pain. But not sure there’s much you can do about it.

Yes of course you budget for unknowable unknowables. Our living commitments are predicated on our still being able to afford our life if only one of us is working for any reason. DH was made redundant earlier in the year but he can afford to take the time to find a job in his field rather than just any job because we planned things that way. Affordability has to be based on worst case scenarios.

The friend probably lives in Wandsworth.

OP, as you sound quite young, if you want to know more about rates & council tax in the late 80s in the UK, Google Poll Tax Riots and Westminster council gerrymandering and Dame Shirley Porter.

Younger mumsnet people are frequently effectively calling for a return to the poll.tax without realising the problems that it caused.

And, if the extension to the house was done prior to the banding, and there was no improvement marker on it when you bought it you should be looking at challenging the uplift.

I am not particularly young. I am worse- am foreign.

I will be challenging it because I suspect between 1984 and 1991 the bands were already increased. I want to make sure the council isn't double charging for the same extension.

Thank you for list of things to google to educate myself.

I am sorry, in this day and age if everyone accounted for the unknowable unknowables, people would be able afford little more than a stick. Clearly there is no one way to do these things and calculated risk is variable for different people. You've got to acknowledge that.

Ah, well that explains why you don't know about the riots & changes!

There was no banding prior to 1991, the local charge was based upon something different so if the property hasn't been extended or changed hands since then, there is no reason to trigger a change in banding as the property is exactly the same as it was when originally banded.

I am sorry, there should be no element of "Luck" within an institution. That is poor design.

You don't get on an airplane hoping that you get lucky.

The posts that call the new increased rate the "correct" rate are hilarious. How does anyone know that?

Equally hilarious are the ones that are screaming for the correct rates but also don't say anything about it or they will increase all your neighbours rates as well meaning my neighbours are now "lucky" and I have to keep shtum about my unlucky lot?

As I say, in a correct and fairly designed system there should be no space for luck. That is very much poor and incompetent design.

Good luck with your appeals. I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed for you!!

I suspect this might be the case. My only hope is that they already included the extension when calculated in 1991. Been single ownership throughout. They've also done a thing where one half of the couple was added to the deeds of the house a few years before our sale. I will also be questioning why all of this didn't become apparent at that point and why the surveyor or solicitors have failed to pick any of this up.

What is the actual difference in the monthly cost you will be paying now? I’ll bet it’s not more than £100 a month - which should be within any tolerance for affordability when you buy a house. In fact I’ve just asked AI for a quick calculation for last year and the average monthly difference between Band D and Band E (for comparison as you haven’t given your banding) was £43 a month. If your budget is that tight, you’ve overstretched by a very long way.

This is exactly what I am talking about! Why aren't they acted at the time.
Honestly some of the comments seem to miss this ethical side of this entirely.

I don't know about the conservatories either, sorry to not be of help

There's one like that next door to the house we sold in 2018. The current owners extended it to double the square meterage (going from four beds to six with a huge single storey extension too). It went on the market last summer and went sstc fairly quickly, but not showing on the land registry yet. No improvement indicator on the VOA!

We'd extended the house we sold in 2014 and our buyers later told us they were a bit shocked when it went up two council tax bands a few months later. The improvement indicator was there, but their conveyancer hadn't mentioned it. Curiously like @Hectorsmother's house, it had also been extended in the 1980s, yet when we bought it in 2011 there was no increase in CT.

Edited to add - another house we sold (in 2007) has an improvement indicator dating from when we purchased. We did a small extension in 2004. It has been sold twice (in 2007 when we sold and again in 2013), but the CT band (F) is still the same and the improvement indicator dates from 1997, which seems odd.

Am sorry, I think at this point you are over reaching! Like the VOA/ Council!

You've been the one to bring affordability into the equation and I have pointedly declined to directly comment on it.

The only comment I've made is about All costs (fuel, food, estimated mortgage rates) going up- which I am sure even the superior AI budgeting will point to being above 43 pounds,

Why do people use phrases like money grab and clawing back money?? Local authorities are absolutely skint - and most of the money they need goes on social care and SEN. Of course they need to find it from anywhere they can - we’re not using it to gold plate our offices 🙄

Thank you!!

At best the whole system is patchy and bizarre!! Some of the posts jumping up and down about "fairness" but also "be quite so as to not increase your neighbours rates" are equally mind boggling!!

Do you work for a council? I am sorry the words used have caused you any upset.

Local Authorities are skint, and yet Starbucks, Amazon, massive conglomerations legally make frameworks to avoid paying taxes and to "reduce their tax burden" Massive holes can be plugged in from those taxes.

Not the supposed £43 pounds (as kindly calculated by another poster) from me.
I wonder what the people who have pointed out to me that I've got to pay my fair share have to say about that.

The entire street (save three other houses) is paying our old rate. They all have extensions of some sort.

I don't really know where that lands us.

So you'd be happy to live under harsher tax rules than your age/ decade related counterparts? Man you must be the happiest person alive!!

I am loving your certainty in this statement "The current tax liability is now correct"

I live in a Band G, the value of
my house is about 800k. There are a few other Band Gs for sale at the moment. One is 2.95million, another is 1.695million, one is 1.65million and one is 745k. This indicates what nonsense tax banding is. I believe my house is in the correct band and probably so is the one for sale at 745k. Those at a million plus should probably be in Band H. I have a friend who has built a built a chalet bungalow probably worth about 550k, her boss lives in an 8bed, 8bath, barns, stables and acres of grounds around it. Their council tax is identical.

I just wish a government was brave enough to overhaul this system.

I suspect the house was in the wrong band originally, somebody near you has discovered that you are in a cheaper band than their similar house, has appealed to the Valuation Agency, who have determined that it is your house that is in the wrong band, so your's has been changed. It is quite common for houses to have always been in the wrong band, indeed I got a massive refund, when I discovered that my previous house was in a higher band than the semi it was attached to, that had a much larger extension.

People use those terms because it is exactly what the councils do. They are money grabbing, backhand taking, tricksters.

@HoskinsChoice
Do you still this is a fair system and the rest of us are whin(ny)ing. I must admit I admire your confidence in fairness assessment.

Am using a horsey term before the sculpture person comes for me.

Am glad you got a refund.

Am personally not bothered if all of this was triggered by a neighbour. I am still baffled by the timelines and will be looking into it.

But clearly as you say houses are mostly on the wrong band and here we have a lot of posters with the unshakeable belief on what is right and what is wrong when there is evidence to point to the contrary!