Inheritance tax

All of Westminster's domestic properties are in Band H (valued at over £320,00) properties and paying £1508. I have just been on Rightmove. After excluding the parking spaces, houseboats, hotel rooms and shared ownership properties the cheapest property I could find, a 1 bedroomed flat, was £485,000, which would put it in Band H. Public sector housing accounted for less than 20% of the housing stock

How many Band H properties in Gateshead? Of 32 pages of property advertised for sale in Gateshead, one and a half pages were in Band H. 7 pages were Band D and under. A third of all properties are in the public sector so likely to be in lower tax bands and will not appear on Rightmove.

It is still not a fair system, though. To have such a discrepancy between the level of council tax for the same bands in the same country is wrong.
I am not sure what the council tax on a Band H property in Gateshead would be, if the charge on a Band D property is more than that on a Band H in, for example, Westminster.

Is it me or is there a misunderstanding on here about how council tax bands operate? Your house is put in the band based on what the house was worth on 1 April 1991 not what it is worth now. That’s one of the issues around council tax - there haven’t been revaluations of house valuations and the number of bands haven’t increased.

Our house was re-valued for council tax purposes in 2003 - how come yours has not been re-valued since 1991?

If someone has worked hard all their life to save money why should that be taken away from them. There will be an awful lot of ordinary people caught up in this. It will not be the super wealthy as they have the funds to protect what they have.

Callistemon - when your house was revalued in 2003 had you had some improvementsc done?

No, suziewoozie, all houses were revalued.
Perhaps it did not happen in England then?

suzie if you sell up and buy another house ( as we did a few years ago) it was revalued as it had been extended.
You can add to your house and not pay more in CT, but when you sell it, they revalue.

Sorry Call, I didn’t think about you not being in England.

I assumed it had happened all over the country, I wonder why not?

Never assume anything.

Thanks lemon - yes that’s true - but it’s still valued as what it would have been worth in 1991 if it had had the extension then. It’s crazy isn’t it because if you stay in it, it isn’t revalued. I think council tax reform is like social care - no government of any colour dares go near reforming either when the chips are down.

Call you and me both

I meant me - it's what my friend always says!

Well I never knew that about Wales ( just googled ) they also added an extra band I.

Long story short .... My ( then) new build 2 bedroom terrace was re banded in 2011 ( as were all new builds) we were told that older properties would follow . Then it was cancelled and we were stuck in a band much higher than the value of our house could ever have been in 1991 !

It was cancelled for all but new builds Calli .

Oh! Not very fair, gillybob

Gilly have you the time or inclination to appeal against your valuation? My sister did this and went down a band and it was backdated but I can’t remember for how many years. It was a tidy sum