Council Tax Cost Cutting: reduce your band and grab any discounts Discussion Area

Maisie

MunsterGirl wrote:

Hi Maisie,

good news !! checked the VOA site today, and my house and the other neighbour have both been changed from F to E (3 houses exactly the same, mine and one other in F , the third one in E, which is why I followed your advice and phoned)

Just waiting to find out how much the refund will be.

So, many thanks for the original post.


M

Hi Munstergirl. Well done! That's great news. Make sure that the VOA refund for all the back years you've been in the property.

Some MSEs are talking about trying to get interest on the rebate but don't know if that is working . Anyone got interest on the rebate ? Let us know.
(Watch this thread).

Have you told the neighbours it's through your efforts and MSE that their council tax banding has been lowered? You'll be the most popular girl in the street!.

We should have a column/total of the rebate amount that people are getting from this thread. Must be £1000,s.

Pass the word on to check council tax banding at https://www.voa.gov.uk

Maisie OP

Annie021063

Hi guys
Just wanted to post my update. Had a letter this morning from VOA stating that they agreed with our claim and they have changed our banding from D to C and will backdate it to 1993. We moved in March 2000 so we should get substantial rebate. This is all thanks to you lot - I would never had known about this or any of the other money saving ideas I have gleaned from this site. THANKYOU:beer:
I will let you all know how much when I know.
Thanks again

Maisie

Annie021063 wrote:

Hi guys
Just wanted to post my update. Had a letter this morning from VOA stating that they agreed with our claim and they have changed our banding from D to C and will backdate it to 1993. We moved in March 2000 so we should get substantial rebate. This is all thanks to you lot - I would never had known about this or any of the other money saving ideas I have gleaned from this site. THANKYOU:beer:
I will let you all know how much when I know.
Thanks again

Wow! That's great Annie. Hope it's an enormous rebate.

If that's your birthdate I'm a Libran too. 7 October.

Glad my original post helped.

Maisie.

maroon_2

Martin,

I submitted my proposal to Luton Borough Council on the grounds that based on the1991 valuation my dwelling should be under band E against current band F. My neighbour is band E. My proposal was considered invalid because it was received outside the time limits prescribed by the law. To quote the VOA officer " When the Council Tax was introduced in 1993 everyone had until 30 Nov 1993 to challenge the valution band of thier property" I moved into my present dwelling in April 2000 so there is no way i could have challenged in 1993. Can I take this up futher?

maroon

Zebedeee

maroon wrote:

Martin,

I submitted my proposal to Luton Borough Council on the grounds that based on the1991 valuation my dwelling should be under band E against current band F. My neighbour is band E. My proposal was considered invalid because it was received outside the time limits prescribed by the law. To quote the VOA officer " When the Council Tax was introduced in 1993 everyone had until 30 Nov 1993 to challenge the valution band of thier property" I moved into my present dwelling in April 2000 so there is no way i could have challenged in 1993. Can I take this up futher?

maroon

Yes you can maroon. This is simillar to my situation. I wrote back and it was again refused, but then it was referred to Tribunal. My local valuation officer did this, not the council tho. If you have not been in touch with the valuation folks it would be worth getting on to them. Many on this board seem to have had their band reduced before actually getting to tribunal, so here's hoping you and I do too!

SavingTide

I checked my banding and noted I am on a higher band than identical house next door (not precisely identical, but if anything theirs is larger then mine. )
Before proceeding to apply for a rate reduction, can the result of this be they judge next door is paying too little rather than I am paying too much. I have excellent friendship with them and do not want to fall out (Oh thanks neighbour for getting my tax increased... can this happen?
thanks in advance

CIS

Before proceeding to apply for a rate reduction, can the result of this be they judge next door is paying too little rather than I am paying too much. I have excellent friendship with them and do not want to fall o

It certainly can, the result could go either way.

Maisie

SavingTide wrote:

I checked my banding and noted I am on a higher band than identical house next door (not precisely identical, but if anything theirs is larger then mine. )
Before proceeding to apply for a rate reduction, can the result of this be they judge next door is paying too little rather than I am paying too much. I have excellent friendship with them and do not want to fall out (Oh thanks neighbour for getting my tax increased... can this happen?
thanks in advance

Hi SavingTide. Are there any more houses in the street that you can check the banding with instead of just comparing with your neighbour?.

Seems unfair that you are paying more.

moetraveller

I just want to say thank you for this article. Through the links I found out that the house I bought a year ago was banded incorrectly - too high! I notified my taxation office & with no problems & a great deal of courtesy, they have refunded the excess tax I paid & rebanded the house - to a lower band for next year. They also refunded the previous owners - without any request being made by them!

pbfhpunk

Hi, after reading this thread I went on the site and emailed my application for change. I didn't hear anything but phoned them last week and they said they'd sent me 2 letters 4 weeks ago, the next day two letters arrived!! One said that my application had been denied and included a letter stating why, the second letter said I could appeal and they'd look into it and enclosed a form.

I also want to send a letter with my reasons for why the band should be changed. Does anyone have any templates or letters that they've sent that would show me how to lay it out and what information to include. Basically there's 46 houese in my road all terrace, mine is an end terrace. of the 46 20 are band A and the other 26 are B, including mine, 6 houses had the banding changed from B to A so I know there's a prescedent the date of the change is 1/4/93 for all of them, I'm guessing that's a generic date. My next door neighbour is one of the ones that has had their band changed but last summer added an extra floor and 2 further bedrooms to their house! I've also looked at other streets in the same area and out of around 100 only about 10 are band B. As the bands were decided on how much the house was worth when they were done, does anyone know how I would find out the price of my house then? I bought my house in 1996 for £34,000 and they're now selling for around £112k-£125k.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated!!

Helen