My apartment has just been assessed for Council Tax purposes and it’s come out as Band H 🙄

Apparently, it’s only new builds and buildings which have undergone a change in use which need to be assessed. My house is old, but was previously owned by a 5* hotel which converted it to use as an executive let, but then decided it didn’t fit with their business model, so now I have it.

The hotel was previously paying business rates in respect of the property, and no one from the assessors office even came out to have a look, they just told me over the phone after checking a couple of details.

I’ve checked the other residential properties in the area (there are very few, so it’s not a great comparison) and most seem to be F or G, with a couple of Hs.

There’s a fairly big jump from G to H, so would be happy if it was knocked down a band.

Tried raising this informally with the assessors office (e.g. how they arrived at my banding), but they were absolutely useless.

Has anyone appealed, successfully or otherwise, an assessor’s rating? Is it an easy process?

I’m based in Scotland. One of the things required for an appeal is why I consider the banding to be incorrect – not really sure how to answer that? Erm, because i’m having to pay more council tax than my neighbours? 😕

I have. Moved to a new house which they eventually assesed as band D. Seemed unfair as parents much bigger house was also band D. Filled in form, described property as what it was, got letter back changed to band C. You have nothing to lose trying.

I appealed once and got the branding down from c to b as I had just bought the house for less than the c minimum. It took some time but it was fairly painless

I appealed mine successfully on the basis of comparison with the banding of neighbouring properties. Dropped one band.

Yes
Have a look on money saving expert a good guide on there, it shows you how to calculate your house price when the bands were set and see if it was realistic then, then you can claim the deficit.

I got about 3k back

awesome, thanks guys, i’ll get cracking! 😀

An apartment on band H? it’s either a central london penthouse or a 6 bed apartment all with en-suites surely?

My old 1 bed flat was Band A
my current 3 bed house is Band C

An apartment on band H? it’s either a central london penthouse or a 6 bed apartment all with en-suites surely?

nah, H is more common than you think.

i don’t know what to call my place to be honest, it used to be a 4 storey townhouse on the corner of a square which (back in the day) was populated by wealthy merchants.

my house has now been split into two (i have two floors) and it’s mainly hotels and lawyers and architects in the other townhouses now.

I think in 1991, it was still largely residential, which might explain why the property had such a high value attached to it back then.

Eek, I just did some of the calculators on moneysavingexpert – it appears that if I appeal, I might end up being moved from band C to band E.

I think I’ll keep quiet!

Dave

I appealed mine successfully on the basis of comparison with the banding of neighbouring properties. Dropped one band.

Yep, i did this too – you can search the local ones on line for a comparison.

Got mine reduced by one band recently – even better was that it was accompanied by a large rebate of excess council tax paid from the higher band for the entire time I’ve lived there. 🙂