Money Mail
SARAH HUDSON received two letters about council tax shortly after moving into a twobedroom bungalow in Poole in 2014.
They were both sent on the same day and signed by the same person. But one said her home fell into band C, owing £976, while the other said band A, owing £488. She rang the council, assuming it was a mistake.
As well as two bedrooms, the bungalow has a kitchen and living room on the ground floor and a set of steps leading down to a basement, which Sarah doesn’t use.
The space is empty, save for a few kitchen cupboards and a working sink, toilet and shower left there by the previous owner.
The line went quiet before the tax official
said: ‘Your basement is classified as a separate dwelling. It’s what we call a selfcontained unit. So you will be billed twice.’
Sarah couldn’t believe her ears. Estate agents had told her the property fell into band C and had never pointed out that the basement was considered a separate dwelling by the council.
The VOA is required to apply a separate council tax band to every building, or part of a building, ‘constructed or adapted for use as separate living accommodation’.
It is unclear what a ‘self-contained unit’ consists of and it is often left to the courts to decide whether an extension, basement or annex area meets the criteria to be billed separately.
Broadly speaking, if a part of a building has a kitchen area, bathroom and living/ bedroom area, it will be treated as a separate dwelling. This includes a ‘granny annexe’ to house an elderly relative.
Yet even if that part of the building is not lived in or treated as separate living accommodation, it will incur a tax bill.
Sarah challenged her banding and argued her case at a tribunal in December 2015.
While the panel was sympathetic, they rejected her appeal. So Sarah had builders remove the kitchen units and sink from her basement, but leave the toilet and shower.
Now lacking a food preparation area, the area is no longer considered a separate entity and she pays one council tax bill.