Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

Cross10 · 5 February 2009 at 10:27AM

Glasgow City Council
Currently Band D
Think i should be band C from following website instructions

I have been in my property coming up to 4 years now. The property was a new build when i bought it and was put in Band D. Going off the original selling prices and the prices they are being sold for now, i have calculated that the flats should've been put in Band C and not band D.

I thought i put a good case forward to the assessors but their reply back was not encouraging at all. They more or less said the methods i used to calculate things was not the way it should be done and therefore they would not agree with my figures. They then said that these flats were compared to other new build flats in the local area that were sold in 1991 which were all of a higher value than my flat. I was also told that the bandings were set in 1993 and there would be no attempt to relate recent sales prices back to 1991.

The assessor i have been dealing with has quoted figures for flats that were sold in 1991 but has not given the source of his information.

Basically, what i am asking is, what do i do now? I feel i have a good case, but the assessor is having none of it. they say i have only four weeks to carry this out too.

any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.

cheers

Paul

Fire_Fox · 5 February 2009 at 3:24PM

Local Borough Council: Bradford Metropolitan District
Council Tax Band before: B (£958 per annum)
Council Tax Band after: A (£821 per annum)

:j:j:j

Will not get a cash rebate as I have been a full-time student for much of the time I have lived here, and Mr. Fire Fox is in arrears due to the council repeatedly sending incorrect bills. But it will mean a reduction of about £10 a month and hopefully make the flat more attractive to single tenants if we decide to let in the future.

fran-o · 6 February 2009 at 11:31PM

Local Borough Council: London Borough Sutton
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount refunded: £371 (after 1 year in property)
Annual saving going forward: waiting for new bill!

thought band E seemed high when we moved in to new flat from rented property but didn't know it was possible to challenge it til I saw it on the MSW!

followed instructions and made challenge in Sept 08. Took one quick form then 4 months wait, but once decision was made, council made changes quickly and I phoned to ensure we got refund which arrived in our account this week - yay!

have popped a note through the doors of the others in our block of flats, and am new most popular neighbour

Starrunner · 7 February 2009 at 10:34PM

Hi,

Just reading through Martin's how to to calculate possible reduction for my property. I live with my partner in a Shared Ownership Property - 50/50 split ownership with the Housing Association.

Looking up the noted Sale prices of our and similar properties in our street (as all are Shared Ownership) they are all noted as 50% value and not the 100% true value of the property.

With that in mind - My House in 1991 falls in the Band A but I am currently paying D.

Not sure if I should be venturing down here if I am looking at incorrectly.

If someone else has gone down this line in similar situation?

Thanks!

lincroft1710 · 8 February 2009 at 9:07PM

Starrunner - sorry, it doesn't work that way! CT is based on April 1991 open market value of a dwelling. So omv of your home is its full price, doesn't matter if you only own half, or even a quarter.

Geoffldn · 13 February 2009 at 6:20PM

Local Borough Council: Canterbury
Council Tax Band Before: F
Council Tax Band After: E
Amount refunded: £ 720.00
Annual saving going forward: £ 340.00

I followed the advise given in Martin's step-by-step guide and it really could not have been simpler.

We bought our house in Mar 2007 and unfortunately nobody picked-up on the fact that as the previous owners had added an extension we would, upon completion of the sale be liable for any re-banding the council deemed applicable!. This saw the council band go from a D to and F. Taking Martins' advise, we checked out other properties similar in size and submitted our request for a re-banding down. Within a week we got a call from the Valuations Officer and after a couple of minutes conversation he agreed that we had been incorrectly banded and reduced our band to an E backdated to when we moved in!
The advise I would give anyone is this; check out local properties and make sure you can cite bona-fide addresses where you are comparing. Its that simple!

Thanks Martin

:j

Miss-spent_2 · 14 February 2009 at 3:09PM

Miss-spent wrote: »

Sucess in Essex

Chelmsford Borough Council
Original band G
Rebanded to F
Back dated to April 2001
Refund £2158.71

Applied in July but due to backlog only just been sorted out and then I really had to keep chasing and in the end made lots of fuss about the amount of time it was taking.
We are one of an estate of 12 house. Us and another were band G while all the rest were band F. I checked them all out on the site and most had been downgraded in 1993 when the tax started but because ours were built in 1989, the first on the estate this never happened.
I am off to give my neighbour the good news

My neighbour applied just three weeks ago, using all the backgroung info I had given them. As they had lived there for 15 years they got a refund of just under £4000 (and I got a lovely bunch of flowers!)

Geedoubleu_2 · 15 February 2009 at 2:58PM

Local Borough Council: London Borough of Bexley
Council Tax Band Before: C
Council Tax Band After: B
Amount refunded: £ 1022.00
Annual saving going forward: £ 250.00

Used housing price surveys by nationwide and the Land Registry's actual sale prices web-site, then described my property size, rooms, gardens, driveways etc. Took about 6mths.

As we live in maisonettes, they look like 3 bed semi's from the front, so mentioned this on the form.

Mine was a definite 2nd gear valuation as it was miles out.

moneywhisperer · 15 February 2009 at 7:09PM

Local Borough Council: Rossendale
Council tax band before: B
Council tax band after: A
Amount refunded: £290
Annual saving going forward: £200

This really was easy! Following your guide, I found that all but two properties in our row of identical terraced houses were band A, while two of us were (inexplicably) in band B. The reverse valuation check, based on our purchase price 2yrs ago, confirmed that the price in 1991 would have been within band A.

A phone call to the Valuation Office (very friendly and helpful) resulted in a promise to investigate, and a subsequent letter confirmed that this was underway. About 3 wks later we were advised that the band was changed to A, and that our local council had been notified. Giving the council a couple of weeks to process this, I rang to chase the refund and was advised that it had just been done. We had the option to have the refund credited or to be paid by cheque.

All of this took less than an hour of my time - no forms to complete, no comments about missing the 6 month deadline, no visit.

Advice I had previously read on this thread - worth taking, I think - is to be totally polite and friendly with the valuation officer. I took the approach of: 'I think we're in the wrong band, can you advise me' rather than 'You've got this wrong and I demand a refund'.
Thanks.

mr_jetlag · 16 February 2009 at 2:57PM

I have just received a letter from the VOA last week advising me of a rebanding. While I have not heard from the council as of yet, here are preliminary details:

Local Borough Council: London Borough of Southwark
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D

I will update when Southwark round to the actual refund.

Just so you know, the process was epically slow for us and I thought to be honest I was out of luck. I had put in my rebanding request in Feb 2006! Didn't hear from the VOA until Jan 2007, where they advised they would be looking at my request etc etc... we are in a 1-bed flat with the same band as the 2-bed flats which go for considerably more.

While I am obviously pleased I wonder why the differences in timelines for resolving these... could be they had to get a bunch of us rebanded as I notice similar 1-beds in my building have also had theirs go down.

Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

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