I saw this story on the BBC website about valuations for council tax. it is all about how the original valuations were rushed through and so some properties may be in the wrong council tax band. The headline is Homeowners 'must check tax band'.
Why only homeowners? Is there a general assumption that everybody owns their house? or is it just an assumption that tenants shouldn't worry if they are paying over the odds?
Here's a great tip for anyone who bought a council house in Crawley though: find a neighbouring house which is still council-owned. That house is valued at about £3,000 (what it would have been sold to a housing association for). Even without taking inflation into account it would have therefore been worth well under £40,000 in 1991 so it should be in band A so make your claim based on that.
Yeah I know – it doesn't work like that, but it amuses me.
What I want to know is this: apparently if you discover that your neighbours' houses are in a lower band than you you can't ask for a reduction, merely for a re-assessment. If the re-assessment shows that you are in the correct band, wouldn't that indicate that your neighbours' houses are in the wrong band. Once the council are aware of that, would they re-assess the neighbours or would they leave the anomaly? Imagine if they increased the neighbours' tax band and said it was because you told them about the different bands?
That would make you popular in the street wouldn't it?
One comment I heard was reminding people that the original error could have been an under- rather than an over-estimate. Would council’s then be able to claim a back-dated increase? What’s sauce for the goose, etc?
The whole thing was a crock though wasn’t it? Weren’t you involved in some sort of protest when the poll tax was introduced?
This is why we need regular revaluations. The main reason that the rates system could be pointed at as ‘unfair’ was that the Tories had not allowed a revaluation in years.
They lied to suggest that most people would go up a band, when the likelihood is that the same number would go up as down, and lots would stay where they are. And the craven government didn’t stick to its guns.
The Lyons report is late, too.
Ah the innocence of youth – LOL