Hi there, any advice greatly appreciated.

I purchased my house a couple of years ago and was surprised at how high my banding was, Band E, due to the fact that I did not move into the property for a few months after purchase I did not really follow this up. But after deciding to take control of my life recently and being sick to the teeth of being ripped off I decided to look into the matter.

So after some research, I have found out that I am the only property in my road and there are a few houses in my road, which is a band E! The majority are a Band C with the rest being band D. I also have carried out an estimate of the property value of my house in 1991, which the estimate says would be in Band C.

So I called the valuation office to say that I would like to appeal against my banding. Low and behold they said that as I had not appealed within six months of purchasing the property they was nothing they could do. So I called again hoping that I would be able to speak to someone else, which I did. They were slightly more helpful, but I was told as there really is not another property to compare with in my street it would be almost impossible to re calculate and that I would need to do more research maybe by calling Estate Agents nearby to find a property similar to mine. Surely this cannot be right, why do I have to do all work.

The property next door to me is the same expect it is slightly smaller but is on a bigger plot of land and the Guy at the Valuation office said that the properties could not be compared on the basis my house is bigger or has an extra bedroom!

Any advice on how to challenge this would be appreciated.

are there any houses in the street the same as yours

go onto rightmove and check sold prices they dont go back to 91

but it gives a good idea of valuation

Hi Greasmonkey,

Thank you for your reply, there are three other properties in my road that are detached bungalows, all the rest are semi detached houses. My next door neighbour is in a detached bungalow and whilst their property is slightly smaller their plot of land is larger and they are a band D. There is also two other detached bungalows again they are slightly smaller and are band C. The person I spoke with at the VOA said that there was not another property to do a compassion with, which I think is a joke. I have done a valuation on my property which I do understand is only a rough guide but never the less the valuation in 1991 would put my property in Band C. Due to where I live it would be almost impossible to compare with another property close by as my road is behind a Motorway.

I truly believe that I do have a case but do not feel why I have to justify the banding. I find it difficult to believe that no one at te VOA seem to have a clue. But I will be taking this all the way. Any more advice will be greatly received.

Hi kingsallycafac,

I'm in a similar position to yourself and in a higher banding than all my neighbours.

Hi there

I've just been looking into my council tax banding as well and find that my cottage is a Band B....and it's only a one bedroom property, on the road with no front garden but a small back garden..but open outlook. A cottage 2 doors along which is the same size as mine is Band C....and other 1 bedroom properties in the village are band A. There seems to be no rhyme nor reason for the banding so I'm going to appeal mines too. It might be worth going to your local councillor to ask for advice.

Gemspan xx

The VOA is correct in saying legally you have no right of appeal, however they will review your band if you ask them to. Depends who you speak to on the phone. You will need to write to them giving them a good reason to look into your band. It is based on how much your property would have sold for on the open market in a resonable state of repair in April 1991 (England) April 2003 (Wales). They wont take into consideration the plot, only the house/bungalow etc. If you look at http://www.nethouseprices.com/ this will give you sold prices in your area at the time you want. You need to find something similar to your own ie roughly the same size and would sell for roughly the same price if both were on the market. A detatched 2 bed bungalow is going to be worth the same as a slightly larger semi detached 2 bed bungalow. A bungalow is unfortunatly usually worth more than a house (there are less of them so due to supply and demand, bungalows fetch more). If you do not want to look up anything or do any work, a little trick I've found to work is to write to your MP and get them to ask them to look into the banding for you.

Band D - 68,001 to 88,000

Band E - 88,001 to 120,000

If you want to be a band D you will have to find sales which shows that your house would be the same price as the others in 1991. You can also do this by seeing what value your property is now, and comparing it to another one on your street that is for sale now, if they are roughly the same now, then they would have been roughly the same then.

The website you quote is very usefull but it only goes back to 1999.

How can we find house sales in 1991 ?