I think I’ve been paying too much council tax for 25 years!

[Twofingers]

I’ve just checked my council tax band and looked at the value of my house in 1991 to see if I’m in the right band.
I think I should have been in the band below. I bought it in 1996 for an amount that even then clearly qualified it to be in a lower band.
On the council website it says you can only have your band reassessed within six months of moving in.
There are plenty of stories of people getting overpayment back dated for years so I’m confused by the apparent contradiction.
Can anyone explain?

I applied for a reassessment when I bought a flat and I won. That meant every single council taxpayer from 1993 to when I purchased got a refund for the difference between what they'd paid and what it had been recalculated as.

Sorry - hit post too quickly! None of them were expecting a reduction but it could have ended up as an increase for them too.

That was a great result - especially for your new neighbours!
What I don’t understand is how can my local authority state that the band can’t be reassessed if you’ve been there for more than six months?

You can challenge your council tax band if you have paid council tax on the property for less than 6 months. As you have been paying for more than 6 months, you can only challenge in specific circumstances, e.g. the valuation is wrong due to a legal decision on another property.

@prh47bridge thanks, I still don’t quite understand, does being able to prove the value of the property in 1991 (which indicates it was put in the wrong band) count as a specific circumstance?

No, you can't challenge the band on this basis. You can, however, contact the VOA with your evidence and ask them to review your banding. That is a different process and there is no guarantee of success. You may not get a backdated payout and there is always a risk that they will decide your house should be in a higher band.

Note that the amount you paid in 1996 is not relevant. What matters is the value of your property between 1st April 1989 and 31st March 1993. House prices fell from 1989 to 1996 so the fact you paid less in 1996 proves nothing. However, if you can prove the value of your house in 1991 you may be able to get a reduction.

@prh47bridge, thank you. Do you know if there is a publicly available house price guide that covers those relevant years? All I can find is information post 2000 and obviously the facts of my own purchase in 1996. No similar property was sold in those years.

Hi ex VOA (valuation office agency) employee here!
I assume that You are in England. You can only appeal a council tax banding in the first six months of moving into a property but you can ask for it to be looked at at any time if you believe it to be incorrect. The
Firstly, the value of your property used to establish your band would have been its value in 1991. Property prices dipped hugely after 1991 so looking at how much your house was worth in 1993 is pointless. The first thing that you need to do is look at what band your neighbours are in. Look at similar property in your area - so your road and the surrounding roads. You do this by going on to the VOA website, go to the council tax section and put your road name in. It will show you all the addresses in your road and their band. If your home shows a higher band than another property that's the same then you may have a case. Check roads around you with similar property too. Make a note of addresses with lower bands but look the same as yours and start using Zoopla, Rightmove and Google street view. If you can find evidence that there are similar or identical properties with lower bands then you have a case to request a review of your band.
All you then do is write a letter to the VOA requesting that your band be looked at because you believe the evidence used in 1993 was incorrect and then list why and use the addresses you have found in your immediate area. All the details are on the VOA website in the council tax section. The house price period to look at is April 1989 to March 1993 so if you can find evidence of house sales in your area which are for property similar to yours then list this too.
Sadly, if you can't find anything similar in a lower band then chances are your band is correct but it's always worth a go. It will take about 2-3 months to process.

Sorry for the typos!
Sorry should read looking at 1996 is pointless - I am using a tiny tablet!

@MothralovesGojira thank you so much. I live in a tiny village so it is very hard to compare. There are four houses like mine and we are all in the same band. I don’t think there were any sales in or around the test years. One of the houses did sell for 50% of the band’s upper value in 86.

Nationwide have a house price calculator that will allow you to work out a 1991 valuation for your house based on the amount you paid in 1996. Take a look at www.nationwide.co.uk/about/house-price-index/house-price-calculator#tab:HousePricecalculator.

You should also look at the banding of neighbouring houses. If you can find similar properties in a lower band that will help.

I moved into my house 6 years ago. The council tax banding got changed and it went up a band. I appealed and lost. I had evidence of the value of my neighbour's house in 1991 which was clear that the original banding was correct.

About 18 months later the house next door changed hands and I expected theirs to go up, but it didn't. After that I went back to the council and said my house is identical to theirs but theirs has been extended mine hasn't. I provided evidence again of the value of the neighbour's property in 1991 again. Three times they came back and said I wasn't proving it like for like, so I took photos proving that they would have been identical originally and then they said they would review it.

I finally got put back to the original banding. Although they repaid the extra council tax I paid it wasn't with interest.

I would just be very persistent.

@prh47bridge thank you, that looks like a great resource. I’ll go there now...

@prh47bridge is correct that the house price indicator is a good place to start but the banding officer will only use this as supplementary evidence of the evidence found is 50/50 for a band change. It does though give you an initial idea of whether you have a case. As you live in a small village, you can look at nearby villages as long as they are in the same council area (that you all pay council tax to the same council) and use these as evidence.
Good luck!

@GOODCAT - I'm sorry that you had a tough time getting your band restored to its original level. Banding Officers often work the same council tax areas for years so sometimes are very reluctant to admit to errors! What probably happened was an improvement market was put on your house in error hence your band increasing when you moved in. If a property is extended (for example a 2 bed is extended and becomes a 4 bed) this could push a house up a band but the change doesn't take effect until the house is sold and the new owner is lumbered with the increase. I always recommend that someone buying a property checks the VOA band list and look to see if it has an improvement indicator. The VOA can then tell you if a band change is likely or not.
In your case GOODCAT your issue would have been solved if a banding officer had actually visited on your second challenge and seeing as it was an appeal a banding officer or an assistant should have visited prior to the first hearing so not sure what went wrong.

There was no improvement marker on either my house or my neighbour's.

Also be aware that if you appeal yours you could increase all your neighbours up if it shows you are in the correct band and yet your neighbours' are not

As all the identical properties to yours are in the same band and that you are in a village means that you are possibly, possibly, in the correct band. I used to work in council tax where entire roads were literally valued by just driving down the street. It was very rare for a property to be revalued at a much later date.

The only one who were revalued when I worked there was a row of mews cottages, 4 of them were 3 bed properties and 2 of them were 2 bed. They had all been valued as 3 beds. so the 2 beds got reduced down and their current year's bill reduced by the amount they were owed back.

The Nationwide Calculator can give you an idea of previous value but realistically, what have you got to lose by challenging it? As said try to find similar properties to yours that are in the lower band, however this can be a village by village difference or one end of the street difference to what is a perceived value so you will need to do some serious leg work.

@GOODCAT - In that case you were just very unlucky. In all my time in the VOA I only had one case similar to yours and I had to go to very senior banding officer in order for a correct lower band to be applied because the person for that particular area would not accept that an error had been made. Reassuringly, 99% of bands are correct.

Or at least they used to be before I left!

Thanks all.
I have used the Nationwide estimator.
If I put in my 1996 data it puts me in the existing higher band by a few pounds!
If I use my neighbour’s data (same house) from when she bought in 1986 it puts the value £10,000 below the top end (of the £12000 band) - nearly two bands down!
In the nearest neighbouring village and several others the same houses appear to be in the lower band (some are higher because of a sale since significant improvement).
The nearest comparison - going by location and desirability the houses are in the next lower band.

@Twofingers - In that case you have nothing to lose and you should go ahead. Get as much evidence as you can and send copies with your letter. If they knock you back, ask to speak to the officer who made the decision and ask them to tell you the exact reasons as to why they've refused and if you disagree then press your relevant points. If still unsatisfied then ask to speak to their senior manager or the bander above them as you have nothing to lose. The VOA have a duty to protect the public purse so in cases where lowering a band may have a knock on effect causing other bands to be reduced, they will dig their heels in.

@ThatWindowNeedsAClean - yes, seen similar! We had an entire council estate put in the wrong bands and we had to wait until 95% of the residents had requested rebanding down to A due to them being prefab housing before we automatically could change everyone else to A.

I’m confused now, I was preparing to appeal the band but could only find identical properties in the next village (that are in a lower band) to present as evidence and not any identical properties in my village as it’s tiny.
I rang the VOA to check if this would be acceptable and what the geographic limits are as the published guidelines say same village (I was told two miles).
The officer I spoke to declared that if I asked for a review the band might go up (we’ve done improvements). I thought it would maybe go up once we moved, I didn’t know it could go up whilst we were still living here if I asked for reassessment. I assumed they would be reassessing its value in 1991.
I don’t understand how this is deemed fair. We could have been overpaying council tax for 25 years and if we want to claim it back the consequence is that we would have to perhaps immediately pay even higher council tax. If I understand correctly others don’t get penalised for investing in their property - there’s only an increase when they move so people aren’t put off improving their property. Why should a person in theory be potentially penalised for what was someone else’s error in the 90s?

Is the information this officer gave me correct? The signal broke up so I didn’t finish the conversation.
Is the economic solution to wait until I want to move and then request a reassessment?

My parents got a 10 year back payment 15 years after they moved! If you can prove houses were in the wrong band they do refund (ps they didn't seek rebanding, someone currently living there did and they council used a tracing company to locate them, yes they thought it was a hoax at first!)

There's always the proviso that the band may go up after reassessment, as well as down.

It's to put people off asking for reassessment, otherwise everyone would chance their arm at it

@justchecking1

There's always the proviso that the band may go up after reassessment, as well as down.

It's to put people off asking for reassessment, otherwise everyone would chance their arm at it

bastards arent they I live in a minute flat which was purchased for about £2.50 in 1995 and yet I am in band C!!! All the flats in the block are band C, I might take it up with the management comittee but they're bound to say it's already been challenged and lost arent they:(