Does anyone know anythign about council tax revaluation / appeals etc?

[Frayedknot]

We have recently moved to a new area and the house we bought was substantially extended 4 years ago, to add a 4th bedroom and kitchen (former kitchen turned into dining room).
Today we had an inspection for revaluation because apparently when a house is extended the first time they are allowed to revalue is when it changes hands.
I am really worried now as we are already Band E (the same as our previous rented house which was actually larger) and a band higher than our previous house we owned, which was smaller, although still 4 beds, and band D.
OK we also moved from an area which was slightly less expensive propertywise, so that would perhaps explain slightly bigger houses being the same band as here.
Anyway, I am really worried that we will be increased, the council tax is crippling as it is. I have checked all our road and the next door and opposite houses which are the same size, having both been extended also, are band E, pending revaluation, because the people who live there did the extensions.
So no-one else is in a higher band than us.
Does anyone know if they do intend to raise out band what grounds we might have for appeal, or is it cut and dried since they know the current market value of the house and will just say, it sold for x, therefore you are squarely in band y?
Hope that's not too garbled.

Do you know whereabouts in the band your property is? If it's just within the band, then an increase in its value will not necessarily mean an increase on the band. IIRC, the letter advising you of any change will tell you the grounds for appeal.

Soupdragon, do you mean by value? If so then on purchase price according to the new bands with effect from 1st April 2005 it sits quite high up in band G, which would be an increase of 2 bands! We can't afford that!!!

I was wondering if they can raise you bu more than 1 band, or if it is capped.

By

You can try and appeal, but I think all houses are being revalued or the bands are changing in 2007?

The council tax value, not what you bought it for - they're different. Ours was near the top of one band and the revaluation tipped it into the next. If it had been near the bottom of a band, chances are that the higher value would have left it in the same band.

We didn't appeal as it was blindingly obvious that adding a huge kitchen, large garage and master bedroom with ensuite had increased its value as they had said

We moved into a new house on a new estate 4 years ago. We successfully appealed against the band we were put into. Many ofthe houses in our Estate were large 5 bed and ours is a 4 bed, but I think the council just lumped everyone in together.

The price bands relate to the property value as at April 1991. What I did was look at what we paid for the house in Sept 2001, then see how much a house of that value would have cost in April 1991. I looked on a couple of websites to do this: the Halifax Price Index and the Nationwide Index. I also looked the West Midlands Region to get a more accurate indication. This was certainly a useful starting point and I included this info on the appeal form. Luckily my arguments were accepted and we didn't have to go to Tribunal, so I didn't need to go into loads of detail.