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section 13A local govt council tax,
Help please, if a section 13A council tax reduction request is refused is there a right of appeal to the valuation tribunal ???
Yes there is a right of appeal to the valuation tribunal against the refusal of a request for discretionary reduction under s13A(1)(c).
Thank you Elliot, I was confused as some sites suggest it all depends on the LA in question and what their policy is, My LA says there is no right of appeal, so presumably I just need to lodge an appeal with the VT and they will contact the LA in the normal way
I think you need to be aware that VTE appeals are not like social security appeals. The panel is generally made up of well-meaning amateurs with no idea of the law or of benefits generally. As described here: https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/14312
You have to set out the law and explain everything in great detail.
There was a practice statement about CTR by the President of the VTE about five years ago. I have just used a search engine to look for “vte practice note a11” and it came back with both the practice statement and the President’s explanatory note - I would definitely recommend reading them (and making sure your panel have access to them) if you are going down this route.
Good luck.
Thanks Timothy, I did have some experience a few years ago with a VTE and section13a, they just declined jurisdiction of it all, one of the members actually said out loud ” all of this is going over my head ” .
Thanks Timothy, I did have some experience a few years ago with a VTE and section13a, they just declined jurisdiction of it all, one of the members actually said out loud ” all of this is going over my head ” .
At least they were honest! I hope you included that little nugget in your appeal.
One of the good things about the President’s practice statement is that it deals unequivocally with jurisdiction and what type of appeals the VTE can cover.
But this kind of experience highlights the fact that these appeals really ought to be going through the social security tribunal - they just don’t fit in the VTE where they are mainly used to dealing with, er, valuations.
Just called my LA re; appealing section 13a and they went away to check the rules ,and came back saying, “in 31 years of doing this job we have never heard of an appeal against a section 13a decision, but we have checked and yes there is a right of appeal “
Appeal on its way, this could be fun !!!