Council Tax Bands

[Petal12]

Hi all, just wondering if anyone has any experience or knowledge of appealing your council tax band.
I've already gone down the road of asking for a review from the valuations office but they have refused this, unfairly imo!
For info, our house has been placed in band g since the drive by in the 90s. We moved in 5 years ago but I was unaware of the 6 month review until I saw Martin Lewis on this morning a year ago. The house is modest 4 bed detached on a normal plot size for that type of house. It certainly is not band g worthy compared to the other houses down our road within that band. The VO asked us to provide evidence of other houses down our road, similar in footprint but in a lower band. We did do this but their retort was that they weren't comparable. The problem is none of the houses in our road are the same. They're a mix of individually built houses, bungalows and dormer bungalows, no two houses are the same. Prices in the road range from a 2 bed bungalow at £325k to a newly built prestige 3000sqft home with a large plot of land around the £900k mark. Our house sits firmly in the middle of the two along with the majority of the rest of the houses which are all around the £500k mark. Outside our road on a nearby estate, houses similar is size, plot and value to ours are on a mix of band e and band f. I feel very strongly that we are a band to high but I don't know where to go from this? Can anyone offer any advice please?

What band do you think you should be in?
What is the difference in council tax?
Is it worth the effort?

I think we should be band F which would mean a difference of £600 a year which is £60 a month to us not to mention the backdated payments which currently stand at £3k

You can probably try appealing to the valuation tribunal service - have a look at https://www.valuationtribunal.gov.uk/your-appeal-type/council-tax/council-tax-banding/

I appealled when I bought my house over year ago.
I literally have 5 rooms. Dining kitchen, living room, 2 beds & a shower room. I am Band C - there are 3 bed houses on my street with separate reception rooms which are Band C. I got short shrift from Council about worth in the 1990’s (whenever it was)
I still feel rather cross - it’s a 2 bed house!! 🙄

Sorry.... no help at all - just a rant 😂

We live in a band E, we were reassessed a few years back, I can only think that a neighbour wanted reassessment. We all stayed the on the same band. I wonder how many are successful?

@NorthumberlandLass I had the same! Our side of the street is Band C. The other side is Band B. I saw something online about how easy it was to raise an appeal so did the steps it said to do.
I got some snarky reply back demanding a full list of house prices from 1990, plus up to date sales info for the last 5 years. There was all sorts about proof from land registry too as I had pointed out houses with 4+ bedrooms which are detached or semi detached pay the same council tax as me in a tiny terraced house. All the houses on our street both sides are the same style and bedroom size but they made it impossible to appeal.

It’s infuriating. The whole system is flawed & costing me alot of money!!!

If everybody got rebanded downwards, then the charge for lower bands would go up.

The council has to raise the same amount of money from the same amount of houses regardless of which band each one is in.
There is no magic money tree

And councils have had 45% cuts in their Central Government funding since 2010

I appealed the band D two-bed flat I bought in 2010. I knew everything else in that price bracket I'd been looking at buying was B or C and so did the research, gave numerous examples of similar nearby flats with recent equivalent sale prices in band C, more expensive properties in band C nearby, similarly priced terraced houses opposite in band B, evidence that other flats in my block had sold for similar prices so it wasn't that I'd got mine cheaply, etc. Still no luck. I doubt they'd approve anything where they'd have to reband a whole street/block downwards.