Council Tax Banding

[HangTime]

Reading the news today that houses in Bands A-D only are to get a £150 discount, it reminded me of the annoyance in being placed in Band E. I live in a 3 bedroom mid-terraced house in south central England. The property did not exist in 1991 but online tools suggest the value of the property in 1991 should be slightly below the £88k threshold for band E, based on "South East" region which probably overestimates it a bit as it's outside the London commuter belt. Current value is about £350k. It wouldn't surprise me if there are people elsewhere with £350k+ properties in bands below E. Our previous house, also 3 bed terraced in south central but around 100 years old was only a band B, admittedly a worse cheaper house but I don't think we have moved up 3 bands.

I had a look online and there is a 4 bedroom detached property on a corner plot which has a D banding. These properties typically sold for around 20-25% more than my own new. Current value is about £425k. There are other 3 bed terraced houses on the estate of different type than mine but same value that are classed as band D.

However when I look at properties of the same type as mine, they are classed as E. So I don't hold out much hope of a revaluation because arguably it is the 4 bed detached that is mispriced. Really the band D property should be a band E (like some other detached plots of the same house type), and the band E terraced properties of my type should be in band D like the other similarly priced terraced homes in my opinion.

Is anyone else in the same boat? It sounds a bit trivial but it all adds up, annual council tax bill for an E is over £400 more than a D, or over £550 with this new discount.

 

[haz_pro]

Sounds like the 4 bed is in the wrong band rather than all of the similar terraced houses being wrongly categorised.

I don't suppose you'd have any luck challenging it - there will be a lot of people trying though I'm sure.

 

[dlockers]

It seems very odd here too. I'm in a 650sqft 1.5bed terrace in band D, but a 1500sqft 4 bed end terrace is only band E.

 

[Journey]

Be aware if you challenge your band and they find it was actually undervalued they can re-band it at a higher rate, especially if the property had any works to make it larger after the original council tax banding and had been sold since.

 

[Scam]

Council tax banding is a total ****show. They valued the properties on a drive-by and that's what we're stuck with. Our old 2 bed flat was band E, but we got it revalued to band D. lols.. Don't understand how a 2 bed/1 bath flat should possibly incur the same charges as a detached 5 bedroom house up north It needs a complete overhaul.

Our new house is band E so we miss out as well. Bring back the poll tax I say. At least families in their big houses with 2 cars and 3 screaming kids sucking up all of the local infrastructure and spending will actually pay for what they use compared to e.g. a young couple in an expensive flat and no children etc. !!

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

I'm the opposite, when we moved to a more expensive, better house we went from an E to a D. I was pretty stunned when I saw the council banding. I was expecting E with a risk of F!
Odd thing is the council tax payment was higher with the D new area than the E old area. My suspicion was that as we changed charging areas we went from one that seemed to band high to one that seemed to band low.

As long as your house is banded equally in its lettering to those in the same area then its pretty irrelevant, everyone pays the same in effect as long as the "mis banding" is consistent.
That was until today when suddenly a mis banding D->E or E->D suddenly matters.

 

[200sols]

Mine is band F, I feel like I'm being bent over. No way I use more services than families in smaller houses and they now nip us for £60 each year for a green bin

 

[Uther]

B here. Small terraced house in the Midlands ftw...

 

[GravyMonster]

and they now nip us for £60 each year for a green bin

That sounds like a steal to me. 52 collections a year (assuming they come weekly as they do around here) and disposal as well. I wish the mobile gardener who does my bushes was that cheap!

 

[Maundie]

Band A here, 3 bed semi in Derbyshire.

The flat in Nth Greenwich we rented was Band A as well and my council tax was cheaper than up here despite the flat being sold for 1/2 million

 

[dlockers]

That sounds like a steal to me. 52 collections a year (assuming they come weekly as they do around here) and disposal as well. I wish the mobile gardener who does my bushes was that cheap!

It is more likely half that number of collections, and previously it was "free".

 

[Slade2]

It is more likely half that number of collections, and previously it was "free".

The irony is that ours was £36 for a year, some people paid it some do not but I do know people that where like `lol, nope, just stick all my garden waste in the general waste now` so, yeah lets just landfill all our grass

 

[HungryHippos]

The irony is that ours was £36 for a year, some people paid it some do not but I do know people that where like `lol, nope, just stick all my garden waste in the general waste now` so, yeah lets just landfill all our grass

I'm not saying landfilling grass is right or wrong, but I assume bio-degradable over a reasonable time frame therefore worse things could happen.

 

[Mr.Cookie]

Ours got stopped (almost a year ago) as they couldn't afford the drivers apparently, not getting a refund on it either

 

[SDK^]

There are always edge cases which don’t fit the average.

Our next door neighbour is a perfect case.
She was bought the Band D house in cash by her boyfriend and lives alone in it. He visits often and has a fleet of expensive new cars - Range Rover, Audi R8, a fully kitted out VW camper, BMW M5 and she drives a BMW M2 CS & doesn’t work.

Clearly they don’t need the energy discount but qualify for it.

 

[gort]

I expect millions of people who qualify for this through their banding won't actually need the assistance and could asorb the extra costs. It's more of a grumble that they may have less disposable income now and be able to save less.

 

[Semple]

Council tax banding is a total ****show. They valued the properties on a drive-by and that's what we're stuck with. Our old 2 bed flat was band E, but we got it revalued to band D. lols.. Don't understand how a 2 bed/1 bath flat should possibly incur the same charges as a detached 5 bedroom house up north It needs a complete overhaul.

Our new house is band E so we miss out as well. Bring back the poll tax I say. At least families in their big houses with 2 cars and 3 screaming kids sucking up all of the local infrastructure and spending will actually pay for what they use compared to e.g. a young couple in an expensive flat and no children etc. !!

If it was to be overhauled it would likely be attached to value of the property. So you'd still expect to pay more for a 2 bed flat in London versus a 5 bed detached in some derelict town in the north.

 

[moon man]

cant complain with my band a ,especially as i can almost get my step count in going down the greenhouse and back water rates only 17 quid mnth as well

 

[sovietspybob]

Yeah the whole way banding is calculated is so fundamentally flawed and terribly executed it's a joke

Ours is a new self build and was banded F, the guy turned up and walked around the outside and asked me how many bedrooms and that was that.

The concept that as you live in a house seemingly arbitrarily assigned a letter higher than D that you can just afford whatever they throw at you is wearing a bit thin.

 

[413x]

If they are going to start using CT more and more they probably should so a reband. I mean have Google earth now too.

We are in a band E. Obviously looked due to the grant.
OK I accept band E. Most on my street were built at the same time.

We can afford missing out on the grant as we don't have kids but there are some crazy bandings out there.


Can people report other houses for having work done?