Anyone questioned Council tax band ?

[Hopthegoodgod]

I am convinced my banding for council tax is incorrect. I am currently band G but other compatible properties in the area are band F. I have filled in the Martin Lewis template letter and submitted to Valuation office Agency. Has anyone successfully challenged their band and got a back dated reduction?

i looked but didn't go ahead as it would have likely just bumped all the neighbours up and I wasn't sure they'd appreciate it!

Yes, I have. It's common for new builds to be incorrectly banded. Virtually our whole estate contested their bands. All successful.

you have failed to mention how long you have been living there.
since you refer to the VOA I assume the property is in England (not Scot, Wale or NI)
The VOA will very strictly apply the 6 month time limit for a re-banding challenge, no matter how strong you think your evidence is.

see the manual
Council Tax Manual - Section 3: England - proposals and appeals - Guidance - GOV.UK

We pay an E, semi detached. Next door pay a C. Both houses were extended at the same time but they were living there at the time and we were the subsequent buyers which triggered a re valuation. Both houses the same size. It sucks.

I challenged my band C years ago as I have a 2 bed house and my neighbours opposite with 3 bedrooms had the same banding. The council said tough. So I pay the same as my neighbours with one less bedroom.

I challenged unsuccessfully (definitely more than a year after we moved in but they have probably got more stringent about enforcing the rules) and tried again (unsuccessfully) about 13 months ago when I found out our PAD details were incorrect (they had our house listed as 3 bathrooms but there are only 2). It's unfair since there are neighbouring houses in the same band with between 1 and 3 bedrooms more than we have, at least one more bathroom and one or two of them even have swimming pools. And almost all the other nearby houses that are the same size as ours are a lower band. I cited all of this when I challenged. But you can't appeal or ask them to show their working so until we move we just have to suck it up. We're in F and pay a fortune.

My local VO/council is currently taking over a year to do challenges so I would just crack on and challenge if you're going to.

It happened to me - or suspect it has. Around 3 years ago. Our houses were built in 1990 and there are 3 varieties on our ‘estate’. When I got a letter saying our council tax was being put in next band E, I walked round and made a note of all properties in the same style as ours as I suspected Martin Lewis and his query your C/T blog might have been at the root of it. Anyway, when I checked online all the houses were D apart from one which was E, so I reckon they queried theirs and all ours got raised. I wrote to council about it and they said we should always have been an E :(

We did and it was dropped by two bands. It had no effect on our neighbours banding. The previous owners got a right windfall!

Yes I did.At first it was rejected and then some time later,without me challenging the decision,I received a large rebate and was told my Band had been changed from an E to a D,I was delighted .

You can only do it within so many months of buying the property. I tried to as I was a C rating but nearly all the surrounding, same footprint properties (bungalows) were B. My neighbour is a B but has extended considerably and is now a 3 bed, yet any improvement uplift will only take effect if he sells and any new rating will pass forward.

I did successfully challenge on disability grounds, I have a fair bit of equipment that requires a bit of space, had a phone call with a really helpful chap who asked me a couple of questions and my band dropped from C to B.
I am planning a single storey extension soon, to replace the 30yr old knackered conservatory and my B rating, like my NDN should stay .

My first home was a tiny new build one bed flat it was rated band C , I challenged it as my parents' 3 bedroom house with garden within the same local authority was also a C. Other one bed flats built before mine locally were A bands. Mine was refused.

I tried. My house is much smaller than every other house in the road. However after some back and forth, the council came up with the fact I have a double garage. I said I could have a shed with a double garage - my house was still half the size of the neighbouring properties, but I got a “case closed” letter.

My sister did and was refunded the difference for every year she had owned the property, it was a few thousand. Although she was very twitchy that had it gone the other way and all her neighbours were upped to her band she’d probably have to move to avoid them!

I tried and failed. Our house is an old detached and there are a few similar (but all unique) on the surrounding streets, all are a band lower. I was told ours is a higher square footage. I don’t think it is, but couldn’t collect evidence and accepted the outcome. We’ve extended slightly now so the band may be correct.

Interesting discussion. My property, when I bought it back in the late 1990s (detached Edwardian gentleman's house converted into two flats - one top, one bottom, I'm bottom), was classed as a band B when other converted props around it were a minimum band C... I think it was because it didn't have a conservatory - unlike neighbouring properties.

I have since made several improvements - garage conversion, extension out the back etc. so the property is much bigger. However, no-one from the council has ever looked at the planning register and done a impact assessment on how any improvements (loft conversions, garden rooms, extensions etc.) may impact the original council tax band decision.

I know it still rankles my neighbour (who has a similar set up but hasn't extended anywhere) that I'm still a band lower than she is although my building footprint is probably one third greater than hers is! We do joke about it though...

Yes I did it for a house in Surrey that I sold in 2020, got a refund back to the start of council tax, when I was reclassified as band B, like the other semi attached to mine, rather than band C. The cul-de-sac I lived in had a terrace of 5 band B, then 2 pairs of 3 bedroom semis band B ,followed by 4 bedroom semis, mine was the last 3 bedroom and had been originally assigned as band C, despite my adjoinng neighbour, with a massive extension being band B. Martin Lewis comes up trumps again.

Yep. Really straightforward case though. My property was on the market at the time they set the bands so I was able to “ prove” it was worth less that the banding they had assigned. They agreed straight away

Challenged for a relative and won - was very obvious though as the house was 3 bedrooms on a road of 4 bedrooms. Their property was F and all the others E.

My own property makes me mad - there are 3 styles of home on a small development. Mine is smallest with 4 beds, 1 bathroom but we are still F along with all the bigger properties of 4-5 beds, 2 bathrooms. We don’t pass the Martin Lewis test though as all the properties of the same style are also F.

it’s an egregious scheme. Houses were banded back in 1991 with ‘second gear valuations’ ie based on a quick sighting from a car with no further inspection. My house is rectangular with a wide frontage but no depth, hence I think it ended up an F. This bothers me more and more as council tax rises (mine is now £3700) and I think about how when I retire this will be a vast chunk of income.

Interesting thread. I wrote to my council a few years ago thanks to Martin Lewis but the response i got asked for so much evidence i didn't do anything with it. We are one band higher than most houses on the street despite living in a smaller house, it's so annoying!
Those people who had refunds back-dated, does that mean you challenged after 6 months from purchase?

We tried unsuccessfully. Bit different- ours was reviewed automatically following our purchase as previous owners did an extension so it was increased for us. We appealed it as similar houses are still the lower band (their extensions were done longer ago and so weren't flagged electronically for review by VOA), but it was rejected based on the values in 1991. We did consider appealing but looking through previous appeals I don't think it would be upheld. It's really annoying as one of our neighbours houses sold a few months before ours for about 50% more and it's really clear theirs is set too low. We don't know them so I wouldn't feel guilty if it went up.

but that is exactly how the system operates. A re-banding cannot take place unless the property is sold. If you could get planning permission you could extend (not replace) a 2 bed detached house with a 10 bed mansion and still be paying the 2 bed rate as long as it is you still living there

if there is no "improvement indicator" recorded against your property then the works you had done are not considered enough to even warrant a future review.

Have you checked if the flag exists for your property?
.Check your Council Tax band - GOV.UK

@Wot23 Thanks - I didn't know that flag existed.

I've just checked via the link you gave and it is set to 'no' so I'm good! 😁

Yes, we got ours removed from the register while we renovate. The local authority are a nightmare and take it personally but the valuation office were great. You send your application and then they ask for evidence if necessary (photos etc) you do have to send your case officer a prompt or 2 - took 9 months and local authority had to refund all our council tax from purchase completion date - good luck!

I have just refreshed my memory on Martin Lewis’s advice. He suggests two routes to challenge 1) formal (time bound within 6 months) 2) informal - not time bound(England only).

I haven’t challenged as my property doesn’t pass his first challenge, the neighbours check. The bigger properties are all the same band as all the smaller ones. However, on a development of 21 houses, surely it’s not unreasonable that the 7 smaller ones are ALL misplaced? Also Martin Lewis says to check neighbours, however, surely the valuations should match across whole counties?! I live in a unitary authority meaning several councils
were combined post 1991. When I look at properties across the former councils, there is one former council area (the ‘poshest’) where houses seem a band lower. So to me it looks like the ‘poorer’ areas are subsidising the ‘richer’ area.

I bought the house 20 years ago and according to Martin Lewis’s valuation checker which calculates the 1991 value, we should have been at the bottom of band E and instead we are in band F. I almost didn’t mind years back when the council tax was lower, but it’s leapt up in recently years and I really feel it now. It’s such a big chunk going out.