Council Tax rebanding

Hardly anyone has a good word to say about the ever-rising Council Tax, yet we all grumble and pay up. Yet, while you can’t do much about the rates of Council Tax, you may be able to get your property switched into a cheaper band. And Council Tax rebanding means you can enjoy savings of hundreds, even THOUSANDS of pounds.

The reason is that Council Tax is a bit of a mess to start with. Think back to the early nineties, the Poll Tax riots and the desperately hasty launch of the replacement system … Council TAX.

All houses in England, Wales and Scotland were swiftly banded, from A to H, depending on the value of the property. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that with millions of homes rated over a period of months, some of the estimates were arbitrary and plain wrong.

There are many thousands of people in this country in higher bands than their neighbours … though in identical houses, often right next door.

And as nobody’s making much of a fuss, nobody in officialdom in England is DOING anything about changing it. Back in 1995 Welsh properties were rebanded, though Welsh property owners should still check.

And it’s very easy, with websites to help you do it. In England and Wales you should go to the Valuation Office Agency or VOA. In Scotland visit the Scottish Assessors Association (SAA).

Go to the website and tap in your postcode and you’ll be told your council tax band. Then do the same for a neighbours’ house. It HAS to be comparable to yours in size, bedrooms and so forth, so, if you live in a semi, start right next door.

Then radiate out, finding similar properties in the area until you have a few that are rated lower than yours. Okay, you now have your first piece of evidence.

Your second is to find if your property was actually valued wrongly in the first place. Properties under £40,000 (yes there were such things back then) were placed in Band A.

Band B covered £40,000 to £52,000. Band C from £52,001 to £68,000. Band D from £68,001 to £88,000. Band E from £88,001 to £120,000. Band F from £12,001 to £160,000. Band G from £160,001 to £320,000. And Band H for homes of £320,001.

A salutary lesson in how prices have SOARED over the last 17 years.

Take the current value of your house and feed it into the Nationwide House Price Calculator, which will give you an estimate of its approximate value in 1991. Then compare that price to those bands we’ve given you above – this will help you in your case of getting Council Tax rebanding.

Now a word of warning here. Speculative punts are NOT a good idea. I punched in my postcode and worked back from the price I paid for my house in 2001 to the estimated value in 1991.

According to that data, my house is actually in a LOWER band than it should be. Now these figures are a blunt tool. In fact, it’s MORE likely that house prices where I live in London have simply gone up higher than the average.

But be warned … a speculative assessment could actually see you getting PUSHED up a band. Unlikely, but possible. Also be aware that the ‘reverse valuation’ we did there has no legal basis, as it is simply a guesstimate … but it’s all useful information in your quest to reclaim your cash.

Let’s say you DO think you have a good case. If you’ve been in the house six months or less, then appeal directly to your local authority (the council in other words).

If it’s longer than that, then you have to go to the VOA (in England and Wales) or the SAA in Scotland. You can appeal online … it’s quick and it’s easy.

And the potential gains can be huge. Remember, in England and Scotland the bands haven’t changed since 1991. So if there is a rebate to be paid, it could potentially be thousands … all the way back to 1991.

And even if you can’t get Council Tax rebanding changed, check you’re getting any council tax rebates you’re entitled too.

If you earn under £16,000 a year (or £9600 if you don’t have kids), if you live alone, if you’re in full time study, if the property is empty, if you are disabled or a carer … you are liable to at least a discount or possibly exemption. Contact your local authority to find out where you stand.

Links: Council tax banding England and Wales, Council tax banding Scotland, How the Council tax bands were set in 1991, Nationwide House Price Calculator

Tags: Council Tax rebanding, Council Tax rebanding article, council tax reclaiming, standing order

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 at 1:59 pm and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.