Valuation Office Agency
1.0 Legislation
Legislation for the application of Appeals Direct in England can be found in Statutory Instrument 2009 No 2269 The Valuation Tribunal for England (Council Tax & Rating Appeals) (Procedure) Regulations 2009 and Statutory Instruments 2009 No 2270 The Council Tax (Alteration of Lists & Appeals) (England) Regulations 2009.
1.1 Who may make a valid proposal?
An interested person who may be
- the taxpayer
- the occupier
- the owner (if neither the taxpayer or occupier) but only if they have a material interest in the dwellingandat least part of the property is not subject to an inferior interest ie has not been let out and part is retained available for occupation. (See definition of owner inLGFA 1992 S.6(5))
- anAgentor taxpayers representative, including family members, with a valid authority to act. A standard authority to act form can be downloaded from the GOV.UK website
- a previous taxpayer where they are affected by a list alteration with aneffective datewhich was when they were the taxpayer
- there are strict time limits for making some proposals, see VOA - Appendix 3.4: England - circumstances and periods in which valid proposals can be made
If aproposalis not received by one of the above or anagentwho has authority to act on their behalf, it will be invalid see Section 3 Part 2 CTM (England)on invalidity.
Executors
Executors act on behalf of the deceased and have stepped into their shoes. This means that an executor is NOT a new taxpayer and has no right to make a proposal as a new taxpayer. If the deceased had the right to make a proposal, then the executor may make that proposal on their behalf. There is no extension to the time limits that apply.
If the executor is inheriting the property, and was not already considered to be a taxpayer for that property, they can make a proposal as a new taxpayer once it has legally transferred to them, or they occupy it.
1.2 Appeals Direct
The Council Tax (Valuations, Alterations of Lists & Appeals) (England) Regulations 2008 apply from the 1st April 2008. This has introduced changes in the way the VOA deals with proposals and appeals.
Information on council tax and how to challenge a council tax banding is available to taxpayers on the GOV.UK website. Taxpayers can access information on the Appeals Direct process on the Valuation Tribunal website.
1.3 Proposal Form
Although no statutory form has been prescribed, a standard proposal form has been produced by the VOA. This also serves as a computer input document. For the definitions of proposal and appeal see below.
It is preferable that taxpayers (or their agents), Interested Persons (IPs) and Billing Authorities (BAs) use the VOAs form VO7455 (Appendix 3.1) whenever they wish to make a Council Tax proposal. This form includes a detachable sheet, Part D Dwelling Details, which contains questions relating to the attributes of the dwelling. Completion of these details is not compulsory and this sheet does not form part of the proposal for legal purposes. A set of guidance notes (VO7455GN) has also been produced and must be made available to taxpayers, their agents and other IPs. The guidance notes are pre-printed and ordered from an external supplier.
The Council Tax Internet Valuation List (IVL) application, which is accessed through the Directgov website, or via a link on the VOA web page, has an option to complete a proposal form electronically and to send this to the VOA by email. This form is a slightly different design from VO7455, but must be accepted as a proposal. At present this does not include an equivalent of Part D of VO7455.
Taxpayers may be provided, free of charge, with a quantity of forms corresponding to the number of dwellings occupied or owned by them. The LO should supply an additional form(s) to any intending maker, for his/her own retention, on request.
Some organisations and firms of surveyors have devised their own forms. Although they may differ in certain ways from the VOA version, they should be accepted, provided all the statutorily required information is supplied.
A reasonable quantity of forms may be supplied free of charge to taxpayers associations and similar local organisations for use by their own members. Before supplying them, the LO should arrange to discuss with the chairman or other official of the organisation the grievance(s) giving rise to the request and explain the basis of Council Tax. Such a discussion may prevent the making of misconceived or frivolous proposals. If the organisation decides that its members still wish to make proposals, the LO should supply the necessary number of forms.
Firms such as surveyors, estate agents and solicitors, may be supplied on request with no more than 50 blank forms at any one time free of charge. Where a firm indicates that it is acting for a particular group of taxpayers, or for the taxpayer(s) of a number of dwellings, it may be supplied free of charge with the number of forms corresponding to the number of dwellings involved. A similar number of forms for retention by the firm as their own copies may be supplied if requested.
Before a form is issued, the address of the Customer Service Centre should be inserted in the box in the top centre of the form to assist in its correct return.
BAs should be asked to issue single forms only to individual taxpayers and to forward any requests for bulk supplies to the LO.
1.4 Proposals in the form of letters
A letter may be accepted as a proposal if it fulfils all the statutory requirements. Guidance on what constitutes a proposal is given in Appendix 3.2.
Information to be Included
In deciding whether or not to accept a form or a letter as a proposal, it is important to distinguish between information that is statutorily required, and other information.
For example, VO7455 asks for the reference number shown in the Council Tax List. This is not a statutory requirement but merely helps to identify the dwelling to which the proposal relates. The omission of this does not disqualify a form or letter from being accepted as a valid proposal provided that the dwelling to which it relates can be identified from the address. As stated in paragraph 1.1 above, completion of Part D of VO7455 is not a statutory requirement, and failure to complete it does not make a proposal invalid.
If a proposal contains all the information statutorily required and is served within any appropriate statutory time limit, it should be treated as validly made and accepted as valid.
The basic requirements for a valid proposal are set out in Appendix 3.3.
If a letter purports to be a proposal but does not meet all the basic requirements of validity set out in Appendix 3.3, it should be treated as invalid and the invalidity procedures followed.
1.5 Petitions
A document in the form of a petition should be examined carefully to decide whether it contains all the necessary information to constitute a proposal. Although it is considered unlikely that a petition, signed by a number of signatories, will constitute valid proposals, such a document must not be ignored. If it is the clear intention to seek an alteration to the List, it will almost invariably be necessary to write to each of the signatories individually, enclosing a proposal form, with a request for it to be completed and returned to the LO within any statutory time limit. If a taxpayer is unable to make a proposal that can be accepted as valid, it may still be possible to raise a CR15 to review the band.
Letter CR15 TP ack, which is available from the EDRM case folder, should be sent to acknowledge a hardcopy enquiry that results in a CR15 case being raised. Should an enquiry be received that cannot initially be treated as a proposal, but proposal rights exist, a CR18 case can be raised and the enquiry acknowledged with CR18 TP ack. Full details of the CT letters which are available in EDRM can be found in VOA - Quick view - Maintenance letters (England) .
1.6 Rights of Billing Authorities and Interested Persons to make Proposals
Regulation 4 of SI 2009/2270 (England) sets out the circumstances and time limits within which BAs, IPs and new taxpayers can make proposals to alter the valuation list. Appendix 3.4 sets this out in schedule format.
BAs in common with other IPs and new taxpayers have the right in certain circumstances to make proposals for dwellings they own or occupy. In addition they have the right in respect of any dwelling in their area to make proposals whenever an IP would have the right except when that right is limited to a new taxpayer.
New taxpayers can only make a valid proposal within six months of becoming the taxpayer of the dwelling. Where a taxpayer has never paid tax before in relation to the dwelling, the date becoming actually liable for payment will trigger the beginning of the six month period. In rare occasions a relevant distinction may be made between date of ownership and date of tax payment where an exemption has applied and tax does not become due immediately on ownership. The distinction between general liability as set out in LGFA 199