ru'

Just had a letter saying that they may want to visit our new house as they have evidence of modification which could increase our council tax band.

WTF? They list examples of this to include extensions etc.

The house hasn't got an extension. The council only know about any changes as it is an ex-council property and has a restrictive covenant on it so the previous owners had to get permission for some internal work.

Anyone know what their 'powers' are? I don't want to let them into the property at all - I thought that the valuations were based on an external view (from the road etc.).

Makes me sick; not so long ago this was on the news and there was some government tw@t saying on TV that this would not be an excuse to raise council tax banding at all.

Leslie

They have right of entry so you can't stop them now I think. Would cost you a lot of money to try to stop them! This country is becoming populated by snoops.

Les

Petem95

Lets face it, you cant believe anything Liebour say - of course its going to result in an increase in council tax!

They've pretty much bankrupt the country, but they need ever-increasing sums to pay the ever-increaseing interest on the countries huge loans

Abdabz

I believe that your letter means you are now part of the new process. One of the bones of contention with this new process is that you cannot refuse entry.
Seems bizaare to me... Having a conservatory or extention doesnt mean you're in a position to be able to pay more, nor does it mean that you are sapping your local council of more resources and therefore that you should pay more... Crazy

boomer

They'll be photographing your bedrooms, and checking on your double glazing, and counting the number of low-energy bulbs (which will be compulsory in two years anyway) and noting what "views" you have out of your windows, and looking at your patio and whether your have hardwood furniture etc. etc. etc.

Welcome to Nu Labour's Britain

When the interrogator (er, inspector) arrives - demand their ID before the even get through the door. Phone the council and confirm that they are who they say they are (and if any doubt - REFUSE entry). Get loads (and i mean LOADS) of your friends around on the day of forced compliance - and get them to take photographs of the snoop, his car, and video the entire event. Stick the video on YouTube to warn everybody else about the **** state that we have become.

The authorities are chipping/chopping away at our freedom, and doing it by stealth. They make new laws (like £1000 fines for refusing to comply), then our "servants" (council workers, the police etc.) simply have to "carry out their jobs".

A similar thing happened about 70 years ago - so be VERY afraid!!!!

mb

ru'

Cheers for the replies. I'll keep this thread up to date with progress, to act as a warning for others!

If I get a date of inspection, anyone fancy having a scoob meet round mine on that day?

I'll provide the tea and biccies...

FlightMan

Don't you work? I'm afraid if/when I get the letter I'll inform them that I'm out from 06:00 to 20:00 Mon to Fri. Can anyone see these council muppets working weekends?

This country is fast becoming an Orwellian state. It will all end in tears.

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

Don't let them in! If I were you I'd tell them to get stuffed if they ever turned up. Ignore all their letters too. No one can enter your house without your say so bar the Police if they have a warrant (?) from the Courts.

TX.

[edit - if there is ever mass rebanding of houses there will be riots in the street just like with the poll tax, no chance of it happening]

Scooby Soon!

Heres how it will probably work:

Scabs who live in council houses dont pay Council tax so they wont bother evaluating there houses.

Middle Class, you will have to let them gain entry so they can evaluate your house and take photos, if you dont they will fine you. They know you own a house, and a car/cars so you have money to pay the fines!

How do you think they are going to pay for all the people that are going round to knock on your door?

I am sure this could cause some civil unrest, people dont want strangers in there house (and rightly so) should be only done when the house is sold and on the day the new owner moves in (if it has to be done at all which it doesnt!)

boomer

I guess that you haven't heard about HIPs - the snoops will be sniffing well before the house is sold. Oh, and a well known national estate agent has been selling intimate details of houses sold to the government for some time now. By sheer coincidence, this same national estate agent has been gearing up for HIPs as well (which will cost the seller several hundreds, if not into the thousand of pounds (and repeated every few months if the house is not sold)).

Chips, chip, chip (and RFID chip) the government goes

mb

StickyMicky

dam council tax, i have just worked out that i was paying full price last year, when i should have had a single persons discount

****ers

miff13

I think you can claim it back fairly sure I've heard you can for up to three years

boomer

Millions of homes photographed for council tax

mb

ru'

"The inspectors are instructed to note whether a householder is potentially abusive or violent when conducting the internal inspection."

Potentially? That's all of us, then. Especially me at the moment. *****.

Had the wooly liberals round earlier; they gave me a questionnaire to fill out. "Leave it in your letterbox, we'll pick it up in about half an hour" they said.

That was a few hours ago, it's still there. Breaking promises at the very first oppurtunity! lol.

One of the questions suggested council tax should be changed to something income related. wtf? Isn't that income tax?

StickyMicky

awesome, as after further investigation i realised i have lived here for 2 years not 1, and they owe me even more


why do they not just add the discount when only 1 person is on the electoral roll???

if they had not sent me a leaflet yesterday with the new rates on and a small part with "single persons discount rates" i would have never known, the ****ers

Nate

iTrader: (2)

Have you kept a copy of the questionaire ??

leef44

I thought they target specific streets where they believe there are significant increase in values due to modifications e.g. a street where generally most the houses have had extensions. They then select houses from that street "at random". If overall, they feel that the modifications have added significantly to the values of the houses in that street in general then they will reband the whole street. I don't believe they would increase a specific house base on that one specific inspection since banding is based on street/area.

ru'

If they do that, then god help all the other people in my street.

Totally going against general advice (GF fault...) we have the best house in the worst street...

StickyMicky

update to add, just spoke to the local council office who apologised for the mistake and i now have a big fat 25% refund coming

pslewis

Or Les ..... it might just be populated by those wishing a fairer tax system??

Don't get me wrong - I don't like paying 40% Tax and consider that we all should pay the same percentage, regardless of what we earn ....... but, I can see the logic in the more well off in society paying for the needy.

I get as mad as the next person with regards my money going on lazy chavs .... but, thats the way it is - it's better than it was under the Tories is all I know.

pslewis

You can buy that bargain Sony Rear Projection TV now Micky!!

Leslie

I really cant say whether we really are better off, or whether it is the encouragement to borrow large amounts of cheap money thus getting people to spend what they cant really afford. The danger is in case it all falls apart and interest rates suddenly really shoot up. the large debts mean more money being spent in the shops etc. thus making the economy look artificially strong. The vast increase in house prices has the same effect.

We all object quite naturally to being overtaxed as we are now and even more when we see how all that revenue is being mismanaged and wasted.
We can only look forward to more and more taxation of course since the Treasury has to find the cash to service its loans from the IMF. This a dangerous spiral since there is no guarantee that the GDP will be good enough to keep up. The National Debt has increaseed alarmingly.

We may appear to be better off than under the Conservatives at the moment, that may be all artificial, remember that there was a world recession at the time and also that the Conservatives got the National Debt down to low levels and the economy was geared to take off just as NL achieved power. I worry that that has all been frittered away now used for buying popularity and being thrown at useless projects and massive beaurocracy.

Time will tell, I find it worrying that nothing concrete is being done for the people of our own country in general, this sad lot seem to be particulalry incompetent in most respects, and that the opposition is not indicating anything better at the moment.

The other worry is the indications about this lot's ambitions for total control over the populace and as I mentioned before, the emplacement of officials and devices towards that end.(snoops!)

Les

richardg

i don;t think you pay for former occupiers' improvements. when i moved to where i am now, the dvo came round and considered value as at the date of the 91 list but without the improvements i had made. i think that's the case, but it's been a long time since the valuation module of my degree and i'm not involved in that side of the property industry

Beef

Not quite - there is an exception to that.

ru'

No, I threw the whole thing away having given them over 24 hours to pick it up.

It was just pre-election rubbish about health care, education, crime, public transport etc etc zzzzzz

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

I don't understand this council tax thing, so you have added an extension to your house big deal does that mean you generate more rubbish or use more street light etc, does a single man in a 350k house use any more council resources than a single bloke in a 150k house?

StickyMicky

that is what i was thinking as well

Leslie

No one understands the logic Wurzel, but they still get the money!

Les

ru'

Worried that she'd loose her BF when he gets sent down for battering a civil servant on his doorstep, the GF phoned the council to find out what the crack is.

The previous owners had planning permission for a garage, and the council assumed it had been built (I wish).

As it hasn't, they're 'dropping the charges' (lol).

Panic over (for me, anyway)