OK, being as you lot are so good at 'interpreting' tax laws, I have a question for you re: council tax.
I bought my house last year, and following the purchase hector's henchmen came round to evaluate it for council tax as it had had an extension since it was last sold. This is standard practice that may, but not always, lead to a change of council tax band.
On the phone before the valuation hector said 'I don't think the change will affect your band', yet lo and behold following the valuation my band went up (as did my bill by about £350pa). It appears that the change has caused me to creep into the lower end of the next band up.
Anyway I decided to appeal this as I didn't think it was justified, and have a tribunal coming up. Hector sends you 'evidence' on which they make their judgement, and primarily this (I was told when I called) is based solely on the floor area (i.e. square footage) of the property, compared to similar properties and the prices they were sold for on around 4th april 1991. I asked whether number of bedrooms, state of the property, size of the garden etc made any difference and was told that it made very little difference.
Has anyone had a similar situation and appealed it? on what grounds did you make your appeal and was it successful? At the moment I'm trying to decide whether or not to bother. I must say that the whole 'square footage = value' think sounds decidedly bollox to me, but if that is really how the decision is made, then what chance have I got when it comes to the tribunal?!
Thanks in advance for any (constructive) advice.
I bought my house last year, and following the purchase hector's henchmen came round to evaluate it for council tax as it had had an extension since it was last sold. This is standard practice that may, but not always, lead to a change of council tax band.
On the phone before the valuation hector said 'I don't think the change will affect your band', yet lo and behold following the valuation my band went up (as did my bill by about £350pa). It appears that the change has caused me to creep into the lower end of the next band up.
Anyway I decided to appeal this as I didn't think it was justified, and have a tribunal coming up. Hector sends you 'evidence' on which they make their judgement, and primarily this (I was told when I called) is based solely on the floor area (i.e. square footage) of the property, compared to similar properties and the prices they were sold for on around 4th april 1991. I asked whether number of bedrooms, state of the property, size of the garden etc made any difference and was told that it made very little difference.
Has anyone had a similar situation and appealed it? on what grounds did you make your appeal and was it successful? At the moment I'm trying to decide whether or not to bother. I must say that the whole 'square footage = value' think sounds decidedly bollox to me, but if that is really how the decision is made, then what chance have I got when it comes to the tribunal?!
Thanks in advance for any (constructive) advice.
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