Council Tax Rebanding

[JamesWoodhou]

I have recently moved house and obviously contacted the District Council to inform them. They sent me a form to fill in and one of the questions was "Have there been any modifications/alternations?". Well the property had a conversatory and new kitchen added in 2001 so I put this on the form.

Now the District Council want to come round and look at the property with a view to rebanding.

Are they at liberty to do this? Should I have to suffer paying extra when the property has been like this for 4 years?

Any help gratefully received.

[Loosehead]

Oh dear, tactical error I'm afraid. Local authorities would love to reband us all and probably will at some stage but for the time being they are going after "soft" targets ie, people who tell them that the house is improved. This is a system already in place where if for example someone converts a house into 2 flats then the property needs reassessing. They are using this system to re asses any changes in any property that come to light, so it's another case of 20/20 hindsight I'm afraid. They can do this because the occupier has informed them of a potential reason for rebanding.

[JamesWoodhou]

Thanks Loosehead for the info.

The thing that worries me is that if they decide that it should go up a band will I have to pay from now or when the new rebanding is due to come in (2007 I believe)?

So much for being honest!!

[Loosehead]

You'll pay from when they reband it, they may not of course now, but they probably will. Keep all the paper work but I don't think they'll have the gall to reband it again in 2007 if they try I'd say you have an arbitration case.