Council Tax letter / potential reband

[Rufftumbles]

Hi, I’m wondering is someone can help me with this. I’ve just received a letter from the Valuation Office saying:

A previous owner made alterations to your home; we must include the additional value of those alterations in the band following your purchase. If I need further information, or need to visit the property, I will contact you.

If your band increases, the change will take effect from the date you purchased the property.

The thing is, we bought our house over 18 months ago and the owners added a garage to our home in 1999! That was the last ‘alteration’ made. If we are rebanded, I can accept that we have to start paying more council tax but to backdate it 18 months surely can’t be right? We just couldn’t afford a lump sum in one go. Can anyone shed any light on this/how we can appeal if it does go up? Etc. Thanks very much.

Well they are correct in rebanding if it has moved uk a band but it shouldn't have taken 18 months to do it!! I would wait and see if it does actually move bands and if it does and they claim the back payment then email your local councillor and complain

It is a tax and they can back date it

Just as people that have the band lowered can back date it or if someone lives alone and doesn’t say for 9 months then the 25% discount will be back dated

You can ask at the council tax office to have the amount spread over 12 months or even more, they may not like it but you can ask firmly to have the payments spread over several months

Probably best to put some money aside now, then you’ll have it to pay off if the need arises. The VO can take their time and council tax can’t change or hurry that up but still get left with collecting the money

Councils don't get left with collecting the money, it is their money. The VOA just set the bands.

Brahumbug - how do councils get council tax then? I thought they sent out tax demands and then collected it from residents

Thanks ivykitty. I will definitely look at repayment options, if it does go up and is backdated. It’s very frustrating if it’s based on alterations made to the house 20 years ago that they decide to reband now. Would they also make the previous owner pay what they owe too since (if it’s found to be incorrect) they wouldn’t have been paying the correct council tax for 20 years? I’m friends with the person who owned my house previously so would like to give them the heads up if that’s the case.

Ruff yes they would have made the previous owners back date it, I don’t know how far back they could have taken it...?

It maybe the sale altered someone to the value of the house, possible someone else has been rebranded and then said

Well what about ruffs house blah blah so then your house has also been looked at

Its is standard. When you add an extension they don't revalue but they do when you sell. What they have done is standard practice. The 18 month delay is not.

We extended a home by 100% and the buyers were not happy at the uplift.

Didn't your solicitor advise you this would happen?

@SanAntonio Nope, the extension happened so long ago and our current council tax band is the same as everyone else in the area (all similar size houses- some bigger) so I don’t actually think this was on the solicitor’s radar.

@ivykaty44 Yes, it’s possible the sale may have alerted them as no other houses have been sold in the street for over 15 years. I don’t know why it’s taken them so long though.

The previous owners would not be liable as rebanding happens when the house is sold not when the work is done. There should have been flag on the property on the voa site at the time of sale to alert you to the possibility.

@virtualhamster Ok thanks, that’s worth knowing. Obviously either the VOA or solicitor has missed this if it’s taken until now to flag it. I suppose we will just have to wait and see if they decide to reband or not. Based on some other forums, it’s possible that they won’t as it’s just a garage extension. I’ve also used Martin Lewis’ Council Tax calculator and it estimates that I’m in the correct band. Fingers crossed.

@ivykaty44. Sorry I may have worded that badly. The council do of course send out the Bill's, I meant that they keep the money rather than forward it to the treasury as they used to.