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Hi, has anyone got any experience of council tax rebanding following a demolition and rebuild project?

 

Current house is band c and the new house would be band g. Can the band be changed for any reason following completion of the new house? 

 

My research says there must be a sale for the band to change but given this is a complete new house is it treated as a new dwelling and rebanded for any reason.

 

I'd also like to get the council tax stopped once the original house is demolished  but don't want to shoot myself in the foot by triggering a rebranding.

 

Thanks

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3 minutes ago, ProDave said:

If it has just been banded,you have a right to appeal the banding within a certain period of time,  get that appeal in.

Hi, thanks for that information but the project hasn't started yet, I'm just trying to establish if rebranding is possible in this situation.

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There is no need to appeal, the properties value will sit in band g. To reiterate, I'm trying to establish when the VOA can reband a property. I know they assign a new band to a completely new house i.e. like on a new estate where no house existed before. They also can reband a house when it is sold. But they do not reband houses that have been extended. So  you could turn a 2 bed detached in band b into a 5 bed detached in band f but it wouldn't be rebanded until it was next sold.

 

I can't establish where a replacement dwelling fits in. There is already a band established for that property so they don't need to assign one but that property will be demolished and rebuilt. Will this be similar to the extension situation? There will be no sale so that won't trigger a rebanding. 

 

Someone with experience of this precise situation is needed and it would be much appreciated.

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1 hour ago, benben5555 said:

Someone with experience of this precise situation is needed and it would be much appreciated.

We lived in our bungalow, band B, while we built our new house in the garden. The VOA banded the new house as an F which we appealed asking for a D and it ended up being an E. The bungalow was demolished after we moved into the new house, and removed from the register and while both properties existed the new house was called New Property at 'old property name'.

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5 hours ago, benben5555 said:

What triggered them to complete the banding? If there was no sale at what point did they contact you and say we want to come round and value your new house?

We had regular visits throughout the build from the local Council Tax office. We started the build in 2010 and moved in 2018. In January 2018 the Council Tax Officer deemed that the house would be habitable in three months. In March 2018 we received notification from the VOA that it would be in Band 'F'. In May 2018 we appealed against the VOA valuation and suggested it should be in Band 'D'. We negotiated with the VOA and in July 2018 we came to an agreement with the VOA that it should be in Band 'E'. We sold the property last year and it is still in Band 'E'.

Edited by Gone West
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I had the 'pleasure' of working for the Valuation Office in the 1990's sorting out this mess.

 

If you demolish it comes out of the list. When the new build is complete (or demed complete - another story there). it will be assessd and banded. These band values are based at March 91 values remember.

 

I did have the pleasure of dealing with an MP who was in band H appealing for a G. In fairness, I awardered it - problem was he had an self contained annex which was un-banded. So he went from and H to a G+A.  opps - 50% increase in payments  there.....

 

Clearly I never cared about popularity in that organisation - or anywhere else tbh!

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9 hours ago, benben5555 said:

I feel that if I keep paying council tax on the original house and forego the saving I would get while it is demolished I may just get away with it. How would they know

We didn't demolish our bungalow until the new build was complete, as we were living in it. The planners were fully aware of the demolition and required it to take place within three months of vacating the bungalow. We had to pay two lots of Council Tax until demolition was complete. Your demolition will be part of your planning and in our LA the Council Tax Office and Planning Office worked closely together. You might be lucky :).

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10 hours ago, benben5555 said:

I feel that if I keep paying council tax on the original house and forego the saving I would get while it is demolished I may just get away with it. How would they know

Pre covid the VOA seemed to visit our site monthly.  I met him once, he pulled out a big file with lots of photos and looked up his notes and said "I have visited 23 times"

 

He was regularly looking first to see if we had occupied the static caravan, as soon as we did that was on the register and paying council tax at band A.  Then he was regularly looking to see if there was any sign of us moving from the caravan into the house.  He did once have a look around the house but deemed it not sufficiently complete to value it, oddly citing lack of any internal doors fitted yet as his reason for "not complete"

 

That all stopped with Covid and the house did not get banded until we got the completion certificate, and it was not visited by the VOA it must have been valued off plan, but at a band that was fair and there would be no prospect of reducing it so we have just accepted it.

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We live in a bungalow that originally had some land on which we received planning permission in 2011 for 2 detached dwellings.  One plot we sold and we built on the other.  The Rating Officer visited our build and decided it was sufficiently finished to warrant a G banding.  I assumed the planning application approval, or maybe Building Control stuff had prompted the visit. 

 

We remained in the original bungalow and are now considering building a triple garage at the end of the bungalow garden with a granny flat at first floor level.  From earlier posts have I understood correctly that if we decide to refurbish the bungalow ie go up a floor, install insulation, etc, the property won't be rebanded until it is sold.

 

Also, the granny flat when completed will be banded but if only one person lives in it, then there is a 50% discount.  (I actually had believed there was no Council tax on a granny flat).

 

So the position would be that the refurbished bungalow would remain in Band E until sold, but we would have additional Council Tax (at 50% discount) on the granny flat.  

 

Can anyone confirm this.   Lots of thanks.

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