Has anyone challenged council tax band before?

[NewToDarkSpaces]

Our neighbours on our left have slightly bigger or same size houses than us - both semi detached. Both similarly unremarkable properties. They are on a different road to us, but literally wall to wall with us. They are on band D, we are on Band E. I was about to challenge when I saw that bands are based on what houses would have sold for in 2003 and I can see that it would make our house actually band F. So there are 2 opposing arguments. Any one had any experience in making a challenge? I definitely don't want to end up worse off as our band here has put us in a bracket £100 pcm more expensive than where we were in our last home, a similar size, in London! (we are now south of the midlands). Thanks

Hi all, thanks so much for sharing your stories, incredibly helpful. Also the advice to look at Martin lewis' advice.

I rang them up recently to challenge our band. They said they don't accept online valuation calculators as evidence.
You have to find evidence of sold prices between 1989-1993 or similar houses to yours who are in a different band.
Funnily enough sold prices weren't recorded before 1996(?) And the local (ahem council run) library don't have local papers dating back to these dates 🤨.
All the houses on our road are identical and the better houses on the adjacent road (similar style but better build) are in a lower band.
I could find sold prices for 3 years before and 3 years after the acceptable dates and these all pointed to us being in the wrong band.
Some prices you can find on Land Registry (you might have to pay £3 and avoid the fake LR sites).
The case continues...

I did, there was a hearing at the council and a man came to disagree that we should be a band lower. The lovely local councillor and 2 others decided that we should be a band E and the man was really annoyed. Sorry man.

We challenged ours by comparison with our neighbour's houses. I got the impression looking online at the time that several - or indeed most - houses in our part of the street may have appealed when the valuations were first done. Further along there are some much larger plots on the other side of the road! My guess was that when the original valuations were being done, the then owner of our house was either ill or had just died, and it was unsurprising that the next owners (with small children) would not have realised that a banding appeal could have been done.

As mentioned by others above, we got a refund for a year or somesuch, but the people we bought from were also refunded for the 10 years they'd been there.

I did lot of like for like comparison which was scrutinised. Also found much larger properties on the same band as me so had a lot of evidence that my property was banded inappropriately.

@Ritasueandbobtoo9

I did lot of like for like comparison which was scrutinised. Also found much larger properties on the same band as me so had a lot of evidence that my property was banded inappropriately.

How did you submit your evidence? Did you print stuff out and send it to the Valuations Office with a letter, or do they accept emailed evidence?

[quote Acovic]I did.

New build in Scotland completed early 2000s. All older blocks (some still modern just existed in 1993) in the street had properties of the same size as my flat, selling at the same price that I paid in 2006 for mine a band lower (I was F the older properties were mostly E, but there were some Ds).

I lost as the Scottish valuation people use some weird formula for new builds to try to scale the value back to the 1993 date they use for council tax valuation. As my block had been overhyped and overpriced when it was launched this was enough to put it in a higher band.

I think the valuation system is a joke. And have been very wary ever since when buying properties.

I now live in London - some of the older properties here are in ridiculously low bands compared to equivalently priced modern properties.

This is not intended to be a stealth boast but an example of how stupid the system is . I know of 2 families who own 4 storey georgian townhouses worth >£2 million which are in band F. This is the same council tax band as my one bed flat which is worth a fraction of that value (probably

I think it is actually a scandal. It should be opened up like a PPI can of worms but a lot, lot bigger.

BluTangClan

I think I submitted information in the request to have the banding changed but I also brought evidence such as estate agent brochures as well. Mine is a new build and was put in F. I argued it should be in a D like most of my relatives older homes, it got changed to an E.

I did in 1998, didn't even realise that it was supposed to be based on the price at the banding date. I sent in proof that I'd bought my flat for a price which fell into band A and asked if it could be moved from B to A. It worked.

We'd be totally stuffed if everything was re-evaluated now, as our current house is historically C, but we've extended and would almost certainly be rated more. It is a ridiculous system that we get away with that though.