Over the last year or so, we've been gathering information about how the Valuation Office Agency (or VOA for short) goes about the process of deciding whether or not to re-band HMO rooms individually for council tax. What we've discovered is that it is different for every person we've had contact with. Here are some general risks that mean that you *might* get your HMO rooms re-banded.
At present, if you have ensuites in your rooms, it's likely that the VOA will consider them appropriate to be re-banded, even WITHOUT cooking facilities. We would like to see ONLY fully self-contained rooms re-banded for council tax (if at all). This means that they would have to contain ALL amenities for cooking, eating, sleeping and washing.
We've noticed that when a property is being changed from Business Ratings to Council Tax, and a new listing is created for the address, in many instances this is causing the VOA listings officers to list EACH ROOM on the council tax list as a separate dwelling.
Please see below the stated process from the VOA for appealing your banding. However, in many cases, the VOA has not complied with its own processes and procedures!
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