Valuation Office Agency - Wales Council Tax Revaluation Circular No. 5/02

Ref: 296

COUNCIL TAX REVALUATION 2005 - CR10 LOGGED REPORTS AND QUESTIONNAIRE

I refer to the Wales Council Tax Revaluation Circular No.04/02 and now provide further information in respect
of the CT Reval CR10 report exercise.

The letters and questionnaire attached to Circular 04/02 have been revised. A copy of a single sheet bilingual
revised letter is attached which should be added to your office standard letters.

Printed copies of the revised questionnaire have been requested from and supplies can be expected this
week.

As the VOA are initiating the correspondence with Taxpayers, bilingual versions of both letter and
questionnaire are required to be sent.

The blank side of the questionnaire will be utilised for the production of the standard letter by means of “mail
merge”. Instructions on the use of mail merge are also attached. Any queries with regard to this process should be directed to .

This action should not be confused with activating CR10 reports generated by PD transactions where letters and questionnaires are being prepared by .

31 July 2002

COUNCIL TAX

Address As shown above

As you may know the Valuation Office is responsible for banding domestic properties for Council Tax and is currently beginning preparations for a Council Tax Revaluation which will come into effect on 1 April 2005.

I understand alterations have been made to your property since Council Tax was introduced in 1993.
Legislation does not allow a band to be reviewed for the current Council Tax List following such alterations
until a subsequent sale of the property occurs. Therefore at this stage there will be no impact on your Council Tax Bill. However the alterations need to be taken into account for the forthcoming Revaluation.
In order for me to update my records would you please complete the questionnaire shown overleaf and return to this office in the prepaid envelope within 28 days.

If you need any further information please don’t hesitate to contact this office where someone will be pleased to help you

Yours faithfully

Listing Officer

TRETH GYNGOR

Cyfeiriad Fel y dangosir uchod

Efallai eich bod yn gwybod mai Asiantaeth y Swyddfa Brisio sy’n gyfrifol am fandio eiddo domestig ar gyfer y
Dreth Gyngor ac yn dechrau paratoadau ar hyn o bryd ar gyfer Ailbrisiad Treth Gyngor a fydd yn dod i rym ar 1
Ebrill 2005.

Rwy’n deall i newidiadau gael eu gwneud i’r eiddo ers i’r Treth Gyngor cael ei gyflwyno yn 1993. Nid yw’r gyfraith yn caniatáu band Treth Gyngor i gael ei adolygu ar gyfer y Rhestr Treth Gyngor presennol yn dilyn newidiadau o’r fath nes i werthiant yr eiddo ddigwydd yn ddiweddarach. Felly ar hyn o bryd ni fydd unrhyw effaith ar eich bil Treth Gyngor. Beth bynnag mae angen eu cymryd i ystyriaeth ar gyfer yr ailbrisiad sydd i ddod.

Er mwyn i mi alluogi diweddaru fy nghofnod a fyddech mor garedig â chwblhau’r holiadur a dangosir trosodd
a’i dychwelyd yn yr amlen ragdaledig o fewn 28 niwrnod.

Os oes angen rhagor o wybodaeth arnoch yna peidiwch ag oedi i gysylltu â’r swyddfa a fydd rhywun yn falch
o’ch helpu.

Yn gywir

Swyddog Rhestru.

Generation of ‘Mail Merged CR10 information request letters’

First create a folder called ‘CR10 mail merge letters’ on the system somewhere that you can keep referring to it
as this will be where you save the subsequent files you create! Cross your fingers, say a prayer and don’t walk
under any ladders Someone is bound to say there is a much easier way of doing this so accept my apologies at
the outset.

1 Excel to Notepad

1. Create a spreadsheet from the Central Data Base using the CR10 parameters set out in the recent circ.
2. From this file, highlight the cells that contain ONLY the address.
3. Choose Edit and then Copy
4. From the Start Button go to Programs, then Accessories, then Notepad.
5. In the window that opens choose Edit and then Paste and the addresses should now be there
6. Then save the file in the CR10 folder you have created and name it address! (you should have now
made an address.txt file)
7. close notepad

2 Notepad to Excel

1. Close the Excel file that is open but keep Excel open
2. Go to File, then New, then choose Workbook
3. Go to Data, then Get External Data, then Import Text File
4. Highlight/select the address.txt file you have just created and then choose Import
5. Step 1 Ensure that the Delimited box is highlighted¤, then choose Next
6. Step 2 Ensure that the ONLY box in the Delimiter section that is highlighted is the¤comma, then click Next
7. Step 3 click
Finish
8. At the Import Data box, click OK
9. Then Save the spreadsheet and call it address within your CR10 folder
10. Inset a blank row at the top of the spreadsheet (it should be row 1) and name each cell within that row as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc respectively (depending upon the number of cells used for the longest address) to take account of all cells with data in them. You should now have a spreadsheet of addresses with each part of the address contained within its own cell, this is very important. NB you may wish to use this as some sort of control sheet in which case you may want to put a date sent and date returned columns at the end!
11. Save and then close excel

3 Excel to Word

1. Open Word and then open the *CR10 letter template (*still to be created (can use blank doc as a test tho’))
2. Amend/enter all the fields relevant to that batch of addresses relating to references and tel. numbers etc
3. Choose Tools, and then Mail Merge
4. Choose 1. Main Document Create and choose Form Letters
5. Then choose Active Window
6. Next choose 2. Data Source, then Get Data, then Open Data Source
7. At the Open Data Source box that pops up go to the Types of File menu and select the MS Excel Worksheets option
8. Highlight/select the file called address from your CR10 folder and then click Open, when given the Entire Spreadsheet or address option choose address and then click OK
9. Choose Edit Main Document from the box that pops up
10. Place the cursor beneath The Occupier in the address section of the letter and click
11. Now go to Insert Merge Field on the bottom of the task bar, choose the M1 option the press a Carriage return and repeat…
12. You should see
The Occupier
<<M_1>>
<<M_2>>
<<M_3>>
<<M_4>>
<<M_5>>
<<M_6>>
13. Again choose Tools, select Mail Merge, then choose Step 3 Merge
14. At the Merge box that pops up, again choose Merge
15. The letters should then be generated and you can print them I can’t see any need to keep office copies other than 2.9 above (a Control Sheet which can be hard copy or electronic) so I would overwrite the files as they are used. They are easy enough to reproduce and would only create a potential of 50,000 unnecessary letters on the system.