What triggers a VOA Improvement Indicator?

[Ivor Windybottom]

Does anyone know what triggers a VOA Improvement Indicator? This is the * that appears after the council tax band, which means that the VOA may revalue it and change its band the next time it's sold. I can't find any official guidance to state what does and doesn't trigger one, hopefully others have first-hand experience.

I'm assuming that granted planning permission generates one.

We bought a house that had a loft conversion. I don't think this needed planning permission, but did have building control approval. This did have one, the VOA wrote to say they would inspect shortly after we bought but then decided not to bother. Does anyone know if building control involvement sometimes or even always creates one?

I'm also wondering about extending the garden, by buying adjoining land. Again, would this trigger one?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

We automatically got re-banded when we moved house, appealling was a complete waste of time.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

Presumably someone had "improved" your new house. I'm trying to work out what triggers this.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Well the house value triggered it, having not been sold for 30 years or something, I've never heard of it being triggered by any other method, this is not definitive but does say the same: https://valuationoffice.blog.gov.uk/2023/02/03/council-tax-band-challenges/#comment-307

 

[Rodders53]

Improvement indicators are afaik almost invariably down to Planning or, Building control notifications to the VOA via the Council the house is in (as stated in this .gov article https://valuationoffice.blog.gov.uk/2023/07/13/how-home-improvements-affect-your-council-tax-band/ )

Although VOA allude to a mysterious "we may become aware of property changes during the course of our work" method as well.

It is the Improvement that adds the value to the dwelling. Nothing to do with house values rising over time.

EDIT: When we were last buying a home the Council Tax band was 'of interest' and I noted any with an improvement indicator to allow they'd be a band - or even two - higher (if others on the street were).

 

[^woody^]

My gaff got rebanded a due to an extra bedroom extension. It wasn't directly due to the planning application as it was several years after the app before it got built. Nor was it due to building regs as some inspections were missed and I've never got it completed.

I found out it was due to some periodic checks based on both planning data and aerial imagery/visual checks from the street to confirm changes at an address. I did not find out who did the checks - council or VOA or the frequency of these checks.

 

[Rodders53]

My gaff got rebanded a due to an extra bedroom extension. It wasn't directly due to the planning application as it was several years after the app before it got built. Nor was it due to building regs as some inspections were missed and I've never got it completed.

I found out it was due to some periodic checks based on both planning data and aerial imagery/visual checks from the street to confirm changes at an address. I did not find out who did the checks - council or VOA or the frequency of these checks.

Are you saying the VOA rebanded your gaff while you lived there?

Or was it, as usual, when sold and applied to the next buyer?

 

[^woody^]

While I lived there!

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

At the moment they're not supposed to revalue just due to an improvement indicator until it changes hands...

How home improvements affect your Council Tax band - Valuation Office Agency

News and updates from the Valuation Office Agency

valuationoffice.blog.gov.uk

One other possibility is that if your neighbour challenges their (high) band by comparing against your (lower) one then the outcome may be that yours gets rebanded upwards instead of theirs downwards.

Council Tax band challenges - Valuation Office Agency

News and updates from the Valuation Office Agency

valuationoffice.blog.gov.uk

Challenges have three outcomes; your band can go up, down, or stay the same. We may also review the bands of similar neighbouring properties to check that they are correct, which means their Council Tax bands could be moved up or down, too.

But it does look like improvement indicators are mostly planning or building control led, although I can't find anything that states that these are the only reasons so there may be others.

 

[zad3717]

We got told the property gets re-valued when new owners take possession. we moved into a house that had already had an extension built it went up a band. We have since done/in process of extending again and will get re-valued if we sell, the new owners will get the band increase if there is one.

 

[^woody^]

I'll need to do some checking as ours is definitely in a higher band to when we bought it.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

They'll probably not tell you the reason if it was the result of a neighbour complaining that theirs was higher than yours.

It's more likely that the previous owner's planning permission caused the improvement indicator, which led to it being re-valued when you bought it. This is how it should work. If you look at any postcode on the VOA site you'll see some with a *. This means that it could go up the next time it gets sold.

 

[Millwright]

This is an interesting one. Years ago I appealed my tax band, as I'm a band higher than some of my neighbours, for the same size house, but it got rejected.

Saturday I was talking to my neighbour, who had an extension built one year after mine, he had put in the application a few years ago and was successful.

So I thought I'd have another look, I notice that my house has an improvement indicator on it, but my neighbour does not!

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

It might be as simple as they mis-typed the door number. Might be worth talking to them.

At the moment these revaluations only happen when it is sold. But there's no guarantee of this in the future - they could decide to revalue everything in future, and/or those with an asterisk could be prioritised.

Governments have toyed with the idea before, but usually run away when they remember what the Poll Tax did to Thatcher. Where there are winners and losers, the losers always make much more noise than the winners - regardless of numbers or fairness.