1 week Ago By [email protected] (Alan Smith)
Two retired couples are frustrated after discovering they pay more council tax than their neighbours who live in the same-sized homes. Ron and Eileen Fowler and Brian and Pat Sayers are residents at the Empress Riverside Park in East Farleigh, near Maidstone . The homes of both couples are classified Band B, meaning their council tax bill is £1,869 a year, but similar homes adjacent to theirs are classed as Band A, with their neighbours paying £264 a year less.
Pat Sayers, who is 88, said: “It’s not so much the money, it’s the principle of the thing. It’s unfair that we should pay more than others, some of whom actually have bigger homes than ours.” Eileen Fowler, 72, agreed.
She said: “It just doesn’t seem right.” The issue first came to light when a neighbour watched a Martin Lewis Money Show on TV, which suggested that residents could save money by challenging their council tax banding. A neighbour applied to the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) for a reassessment and, within five days, was downgraded from Band B to Band A, and subsequently received a repayment of all the extra tax he had paid since moving in.
That prompted a debate among the residents, and it was discovered that of the 34 units on the park beside the River Medway, eight were classed as Band B and the rest as Band A. There is an obvious difference between the homes - some are single units and some are doubles, effectively twice the size. But the band rating does not seem to follow that differentiation, with some larger two-unit homes in Band A.
Both the Fowlers, who have lived on the park for five years, and the Sayers, who have been there for 13 years, began challenges to their own banding. Another neighbour, Andrea Wells, helped Mr and Mrs Sayers with their challenge because Mrs Sayers is registered blind and Mr Sayers is deaf. Mrs Wells said: “It’s taken repeated phone calls over a long period to get any response.
At one stage, someone did tell me on the phone, ‘Oh yes, sorry, you should be Band A’, but then nothing happened. The Fowlers had a similar problem. Mr Fowler, 69, said: “We stated our claim a year ago, and just couldn’t get a decision from them.
” Then suddenly last week, both couples got identical letters from valuation officer Lucy Dyer saying that after “an informal review” their requests for rebanding were refused - and they were told the decision could not be appealed. Mr Sayers said: “There are other residents on the park just as frustrated as ourselves, but we are not giving up.” The couples have arranged an interview with MP Helen Grant at her next surgery.
The issue is also likely to be a lively topic of debate at the annual meeting of the park’s residents, which is tomorrow (April 30). All council tax bandings are based on a historic reference point - what the property was worth on April 1, 1991. Band A is for properties then valued at up to £40,000.
Band B is for properties then valued from £40,000 to £52,000. However, in common with many other properties across the country, neither the Sayers’ nor Fowlers’ homes existed in 1991, so their value in 1991 has to be someone’s subjective estimate. The VOA says the estimated value will depend on the property’s size, character and location.
There are two types of banding review. If council tax has been paid on a property for less than six months, or in the last six months there has been a significant change in circumstances, residents can make a “proposal” for a change, and the VOA must consider it. However, if council tax on the property has been paid for more than six months, although residents can request a band review, there is no legal requirement for the VOA to do one.
It said it would take forward reviews where there was strong evidence that the banding was wrong. For such evidence, the VOA would like to see proof that five properties of a similar size, age, type and location have been given a different band. The VOA said: “We want to do our best to make sure customers are in the right band.
We take forward band reviews where there is strong supporting evidence that shows a band is wrong. “Unfortunately, we cannot comment on individual cases. “We work extremely hard to ensure that all domestic properties are banded correctly for council tax purposes.
“We carefully consider various factors, including a property’s specific location, size, age, layout and character when determining the appropriate Council Tax band. “Each valuation depends on the facts of the individual case.” A spokesman for Maidstone council said: "The council tax banding decision is made by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), so if residents believe that their banding is incorrect and need to appeal, this challenge would have to go through the VOA.
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