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.

Kindly, I think you are misunderstanding the system. When they look at what band your house falls into, the past is 100% irrelevant. It doesn't matter when the extension was built that has zero impact on the decision. They will look at what your house looks like today and that's what they will you charge you today. The past is exactly that - the past. It has no bearing on the current banding.

I am with you in the wish that the government overhauls the system and replaces it with something fairer. Clearly I don't know the historical context to a lot of this and in no position to dream up alternatives!

It would have been on your local search (England and wales anyway).

We had one too - it took the council 2 years to do it, cynically I think because house prices were going up at the time and it pushed us (a 4 bed terrace, the loft was converted) into the same band as the 5 bed detached houses in the same street.

Correct. I have/ am still misunderstanding.

How can the past still be in the past when the VOA letter is literally quoting me 1991 and the property's value as gauged at that point in time?

Aren't THEY dragging up the past to impact my present and future?

I agree, it's ridiculous! We owned a Band G house (sold for 470k). Neighbouring house was half as big again and in Band F - theirs sold a couple of months later for 800k....go figure!

Our last house (in Wales, for what it's worth) was Band D. We were fairly rural so didn't have really close neighbours and the properties were all different, being old period buildings. Our nearest neighbour's house was much larger, yet was in Band B, no improvement indicator. Same age/style of property as they were both originally agricultural buildings belonging to the same estate. I was keen to challenge the banding, but the neighbour was known for being an arse and I imagined if his band went up, we'd never hear the last of it, so left well alone!

I live in an apartment which was built in 1985, and in 1994 was valued at £90k, today the same flats in the block are selling for £50/£60k. We are still paying at a band higher than the present value of the property, and the council have refused to consider correcting the banding.

I think it’s unfair if the previous owners hadn’t had to pay it and built it but they are immediately on to you about the increase

will this happen every time

i am currently in process of moving and this worries me as I purposely avoid band G but don’t want to buy something that I may become Band G in future itms

I think you have conned twice over tbh.
Surely the former owner knew about the extension .Either they didn't mention it to the Estate Agent, or if the did it deliberately fall on deaf ears.

Surely there is some kind of check on if the house is as described in the deeds
Maybe the Conveyance Solicitor checks with the Local Council and Land Registry?

If this information was kept from you by either party. Do you have some kind of legal recourse?

A lot of Estate Agents are not that bright and have little training. They are just full of themselves and think that they can sell any thing.

Think Kieran McCartney a current contestant in Tne Apprentice.

I know someone who recently sold a flat where the roof needed replacing within the next year. She never mention it to the the Estate Agent.

Good Luck

I know someone who recently sold a flat where the roof needed replacing within the next year.

That's down to the buyer's surveyor though, that's all part of what a survey is about.

And from what the OP has put, the extension was done prior to 1991 - that's when the original council tax banding was done so there is NO reason for anyone to imagine that a re banding was needed, so all the accusations of 'the vendors should have said something' are, quite frankly, naive at best

Looking for egregious examples of council tax bands is like shooting fish in a barrel. Houses were valued in a hurry and by speedy drive bys. There was no Google maps to get an overhead view. Houses could be the same size but be oriented differently to the road. One house ends up D due to a narrow kerbside, the other F due to a broad kerbside. Guess which one I live in 😤

markers only work if/when there has been planning permission requested and building regs involved. Even then, they seem patchy. The whole system needs looking at. I lived through the poll tax as a student being required to pay but there has to be fairness in contributions. I don’t see why my neighbours with 2 adult kids at home in full time employment aren’t paying more. Why shouldn’t each adult contribute something? 52% of my council tax goes on adult services. Why shouldn’t each adult who is earning be contributing to that amongst other things?

I don't think you're being unreasonable, because they have done this without triggering anything.

When we moved into our house we received a letter a few months later from the Council saying the band had gone up. Obviously the sale had triggered them to look at this and the fact that the owners before us had put an extension on.

Where it isn't fair though, the next door neighbour also extended their house (in fact 2 extensions, front and back). They later sold their house. That was 4 years ago yet they are still in the original council tax band.

It just seems so random, and unlucky for you if yours is the home they've looked at, whilst others have been left alone.

Apart from the disastrous employer NI hikes, pretty much all new taxes are on wealth, be that pensions and IHT, VAT on school fees, CGT limits and rates, extra 2% on unearned income, highest stamp duty in the world on properties over £1m, new property tax on £2m+ properties., etc etc.
fundamentally the government has given up trying to load any more on the workers and instead are going for wealth instead. Like it or not if you are a homeowner you are moderately wealthy and the government will come to pluck your feathers.
unless the government drastically reduces spending on pensions and welfare which it seems unable to do, it will need to keep finding ways to plunder everyone’s coffers. Historically we’ve never been rocher, so you can see why they feel justified

This happened to me. Bought my current property back in 2002. It had a roof extension done by previous owners 2 years before being sold to me. I paid the current C/tax at the time but around 6/7 months after I bought the property, was informed it had now been rebanded and I was liable for the arrears in the difference of increase of C/tax.

Do you know what size the extension is?

this happened to us but they and out and did a visit, then decided not to raise it as it was only a small sun room that had been added. This was just after we bought our house in Scotland 2019.

only issue is I can’t remember if we appealed it or if the visit was standard part of the process. Could be worth looking into further first, and the rules around increases, incase it is a sizeable extension and they put it up even more.

I don’t at all

it is an absolute cheek especially if it is backdated and the previous owners haven’t had to pay it, plus it’s an unknown when you buy house

not to mention the exorbitant amount of stamp duty the government has already been given by the buyer

This happened to us too. The extension had been built 30 years prior to us buying the house, and not even by the previous owner, it was the owners before that. Our solicitor hadn't flagged it to us and we had no idea this was a thing! I tried to get some info about what the evidence was for the increase, and why it hadn't been implemented when our seller bought the house, or if indeed it had and we were now being charged again, but I just kept getting stock replies back and it was like talking to a brick wall. I gave up in the end and we just had to accept it. The houses in our road are all completely different so I couldn't see what evidence I could provide to challenge it.

@DippingTheBeak we have provided the 5 comparable houses of similar footprint, plus the description of our property (on the PAD) that they provided is wrong. The measurements are not correct.

All we get are standardised rejection letters stating we have supplied insufficient evidence, although they haven’t addressed any of the points we’ve raised. It’s a very frustrating process.

Obviously it's unfortunate you didn't know, but it's just the legal process.

@toooldtocaremuch I wouldn't let it go. I would request a site visit to show that their records are incorrect. Take it as high as you can. If this is incorrect from day 1 then they have to backdate it and you will see the benefit of that. Argue it, fight it.

If you can speak to a human I would try that first but I wouldn't give up.

I would be very suspicious that the extension didn't actually take place in 1984, but in the '90s or even later, when building control regulations were more stringent. Does the extension actually have planning and building regs sign-off? Or has the vendor 'back dated' the date of the extension to try and hide the fact that it doesn't comply?

Other that that it is, I thought, well known that council tax banding isn't reviewed after any improvement / extension until it changes hands. So it's not retrospective taxation at all, it's just future taxation being levied at the correct rate.