UKC

Hi,

I am apealling my council tax, the VOA have rejected and I have appeal date.

The VOAs evidence is that my house is Band D and that other houses exactly like mine in the area are Band D, and they have cited 2 addresses.

I went to the Library and found one of the houses cited by the VOA, for sale in April 1991 for £67K.

I spoke to VOA officer and they said that £67K is on the border at £68K for band C/D and that the house might have sold for more.

The VOA as of yet have not actually supplied any house sale price data from April 1991.

Knocking on doors and asking, is a bit awkward in these Covid times, complicated by the fact as these are bungalows, and anyone who bought in 1991, is very likely to be very old as people who buy bungalows, tend to be older, so possibly shielding.

Any ideas on how I can get actual house prices from April 1991.

Kind regards

Steve

 A quick Google throws this up: https://www.gov.uk/search-house-prices

Never used it but looks like what you are after. 
 

Edit: it might not go back as far as 1991 having just tried it for my house

Land registry. I think you have to pay a small fee.

How much money are you really talking about in terms of council tax bands? £200 a year?

Money saving expert has advice on this, and a calculator tool that allows you to input a more recent sale price and date and convert to estimated 1991 equivalent. 

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/council-tax-bands-change/

Better to get solid info from Land Registry to back up the position.

Zoopla and Rightmove sometimes have data - but I'm not sure it would go back this far?  Worth looking.

I used Zoopla and Rightmove when I had a similar situation. (Moved into a Band B, almost immediately got a letter saying it at been reassessed as Band E).

Turned up at the hearing with a shed load of information, council bloke turned up with no evidence whatsoever andwe compromised on a C.

get your hand in your pocket.

I have a similar situation where the house I have just bought is Band B, whereas the identical houses either side (terraced) are Band A. I'm wondering if I'll have a shot at appealing it. Is it just down to sold prices or what? The thing which is probably the difference is that my one has had a partition put across the bathroom to create an extra bedroom (making it 3, not 2 like the others). 

Read Money Saving Expert and then decide.

Basically its based on what your house was worth in April 1991, and there were a lot of wrong valuations. 
If you say different to what the VOA do, you need evidence and a sold house price of exactly the same property is excellent evidence.
I believe Land Registry did not record house prices back then, so its a bit tricky, I have gone to the Library and looked at old newspaper adverts around April 1991, but these are not actual sale prices. 
Have a look at the deed pack, you should get from your solicitor, you may strike lucky and your house could have sold then, unlikely but you never know.
Your legal/moral duty is to pay the correct tax, not a Penny more nor a Penny less.
If ideologically you feel like paying more tax, contact the VOA and ask to have it put up a band.
If you save £200 a year and pay that off your mortgage, I suspect it will knock a few months of your mortgage. Me it will be a top of the line sports rope, or a slap up meal at a local 1 star Michelin restaurant every year.
Beware, there is wriggle on this, but you should ideally start the process within 6 months of completion.

Its a shame I thought UKC could have come up with someone who could have helped with finding actual sold house prices from 1991.

It all adds up, it could be invested in something pension related.

Ask Peter Kaye? He bought a bungalow and got millions!

I went through an appeal several years ago, with the house being upgraded from C to E when we bought. Nationwide used to have a calculator that could estimate historical prices on their website, based on recent selling price. I used the oldest sold prices I could find on the internet and back-calculated from those.

https://www.nationwide.co.uk/house-price-index/

I also checked all the similar houses on our estate to find we were the ONLY band E house.

Presented all of this to the VOA person and they eventually agreed to rebrand us to a D. I got several years worth of overpayments back.

Thats interesting that they accepted back calculation, but you are getting the closest sold prices, not using todays, so a back calculation over 6 years as opposed to 30, never thought of that. Something I have been coming up against is that prices were dropping from 1991, so what I thought was good evidence of a lower price from say 1995, is not.

It is interesting when involved in historical house prices to note that they are not quite the one way bet people think, maybe over the longer term, but in the medium they can be quite cyclical.

Thank you for taking the time.

Kind regards
Steve

You can also look at the current banding of comparable properties.  We got our house reassessed by showing that the neighbours' houses were in a lower band, without having to prove 1991 values.

The VOA have cited 2 properties which support the current banding but there may be others which are assessed differently which would support your own claim.

You could appoint a surveyor to carry out the valuation, but they will charge a fee and you will have to consider whether the potential savings justify this.  I would suggest using a Chartered Valuation Surveyor who specialises in rating and council tax valuation, rather than someone who is just an estate agent.  Contact the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors if you need help finding one 

https://www.ricsfirms.com/?link=bottom-nav&_ga=2.173084835.1899229403.1...

You should also bear in mind that even if you are able to find an actual sale price for your property at or close to 1 April 1991 the VOA may not accept that as evidence of market value.  There are many reasons why a particular sale may be above or below market value: for example, the vendor may want a quick sale, or the purchaser may want to be close to family and prepared to pay a bit more.  The VOA will look at a range of evidence of sales of similar properties to determine the market value.  An actual sale of your house would form part of that assessment, but might not be conclusive if it were out of line with other sales.

If the majority of houses similar to yours are in Band D I think you will find it difficult to show that yours should not be, unless there is something specific to your property which might mean it is not comparable and would make it worth less.