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

MoonStone_2

Does anyone know how I can be sure on what basis they'll judge my appeal? I already got a letter turning down my attempt to appeal against banding and I don't want the same guy who did the original valuation and wrote this letter to be judge jury and executioner. Also, he was vague about the basis for the valuation of my flat as it wasn't even built in 1991. He said that as it was never on the open market he couldn't agree with my judgement (It's housing association shared ownership) and said that he needed to compare it to similar accomodation built in 1991 and then went on to show how he'd compared it with similar housing that was also not built in 1991. It all seems so arbitary and as my accomodation is for people on low incomes, bunging it into band C because most of the housing stock in my area is on band C (as he actually said in the letter) seems to have no concrete basis on which I can appeal. I'm really stuck.

Maisie

john1984 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies that I got and I'm going to keep on fighting! I have also discovered that a house similar to mine was on the market in mid 1991 for £88,000(£1 below the band!) but was withdrawn from sale because the vendor changed their minds. Would this,plus the other evidence, help our case? Has anyone else had a similar case when you're so close to 2 bands?

John Don't forget that £88,000 would have been the asking price and if he had sold might have gone for less that £88,000 taking it a bit lower into the band.

dave54644

Hi
This is my first post and I was wondering if anyone out there knows if I can claim back council tax over payments on a property that have moved from.

I have checked and found that the property that I lived in from 1991 to 1999 was in the incorrect band and I just want to know if its worth trying to get my overpayments back
Thanks

Graham.p_2

grace21 wrote: »

Hi Funkster99,
Well done,let us know if you get a complete refund. After getting my rebanding I'm now having to fight for the complete refund!!
Good Luck,
Grace

Some weeks ago, I got a letter from the Valuation authority to say my house had been rebanded from G to F based upon a claim of a neighbour! In all some 14 houses in my estate had the same letter. The rebanding was backdated to 1993.

This was followed by a letter from Harlow Council confirming the rebanding and revised statements of Council tax going back to 1998/9 only.
Subsequent communications with the council has now produced a letter received today, saying they no longer have any records going back to 1993 as they have destroyed them all (and they quote the rules under which this is done). The onus is now on me to prove 1. who was liable to pay council tax at my address 2. whether any council tax, exemptions or rebates were granted for the period in question 3. whether any court action was taken and 4. the amount of council tax paid....:(

Looks like I have a long fight on my hands. Unless anyone knows any different??

Any tips would be appreciated.

Graham

Zebedeee

dave54644 wrote: »

Hi
This is my first post and I was wondering if anyone out there knows if I can claim back council tax over payments on a property that have moved from.

I have checked and found that the property that I lived in from 1991 to 1999 was in the incorrect band and I just want to know if its worth trying to get my overpayments back
Thanks

Nope is the simple answer, dave54644. However, if you have a look further back on this thread you'll see that if the new owners request a rebanding and are successful, you will get your fair share back for the time you were there. You could always get in touch with the current owners and suggest they apply.

Hope that helps!

Zebedee

aMeLia'S~MuMMY

:A I thought that I would challenge my council tax bill as I have been paying council tax band C since I moved in in 1997 (£52,001 - £68,000) and it had come to my attention that my next door neighbour was paying band B ~ sure fire winner I thought!!!! I even provided evidence that when I bought my property it 1997 it was valued at £49,000 so I thought would be well within the band B.

Well i get my reply today telling me that my council band will be staying the same and the evidence I have provided does not mean anything due to the fluctuations in the market, however from my estimations I don't believe that my property would have been valued at more than £52,000 nearly 6 years prior to it being valued at £49,000.

It says that I cannot appeal my decision ( unless we meet certain criteria ~ which would you believe we don't!) but is there anything else I can do, or is there any other evidence I can get from anywhere to challenge this ?

Basically is there any way forward other than forgetting the whole thing?

Any help will be greatly appreciated

:A

guppy

sugarplum wrote: »

I applied for a review of my banding back in Feb and heard nothing until yesterday, when I got a letter from the VOA saying they want to come out for a visit. Is there anything you suggest I do for this? Is it a good or a bad sign?

My house is one of 17 3 bed semi's on our road. Six are identical, of which mine and next door are a band D and the others are C even though they have more land, due to the way the road bends and cuts off our front garden (IYSWIM). Of the other 11, 2 are band B (but they are smaller) and all the others are band C. There are even larger detached houses that are band C and even the biggest houses that would probably fetch 75/100k more than mine are the same band as us! We paid 65k in 1998, when the house was a wreck that hadn't been touched since it was built in 1949.

Hi sugarplum. Hope this isn't too late for you.

This is generally a good sign, means they think you may have a serious case. To come and visit is unusual (takes time and money) so they probably need to clarify something about the house before making a decision. This may well be its size, since they can check the other details over the phone. They may want to check there are no extensions they don't know about before reducing you.

If your case hinges on hard facts there's not much you can do to influence things really (hard to hide an extension!). Of course breaking out the tea and biscuits might not hurt

Good luck!

guppy

Graham.p wrote: »

Some weeks ago, I got a letter from the Valuation authority to say my house had been rebanded from G to F based upon a claim of a neighbour! In all some 14 houses in my estate had the same letter. The rebanding was backdated to 1993.

This was followed by a letter from Harlow Council confirming the rebanding and revised statements of Council tax going back to 1998/9 only.
Subsequent communications with the council has now produced a letter received today, saying they no longer have any records going back to 1993 as they have destroyed them all (and they quote the rules under which this is done). The onus is now on me to prove 1. who was liable to pay council tax at my address 2. whether any council tax, exemptions or rebates were granted for the period in question 3. whether any court action was taken and 4. the amount of council tax paid....:(

Looks like I have a long fight on my hands. Unless anyone knows any different??

Any tips would be appreciated.

Graham

Hi Graham,

They may well be right technically, I'm not sure, but I still think they are trying it on. Remember, this isn't an insurance company or bank who you would rightfully expect to take advantage at every opportunity. Its a public body that frankly owes you better.

You are the "victim" here.

First of all, virtually every other council paying out back to 1993 (see the successes thread for details) why are Harlow treating their taxpayers differently?

In terms of records, that sounds odd. A lot of councils are still chasing people who haven't paid their poll tax!

I think its quite hard to for them to justify putting the onus on you to prove everything. Might be worth doing your best though, maybe ask them to check the electoral roll for those years? Or has that been binned too?

I'm sure there are lots of ways to prove you lived there, mortgage, tenancy agreement, bank statements etc.

First of all though, I'd fire off a complaint to the Chief Executive of the council, maybe copy in your local councillor...MP...the VOA...generally kick up as much fuss as possible and try and shame them in to paying.

Good luck.

I should just add that people have been getting their CT backdated ever since 1993 and long before Martin championed the idea. So...how long have the council had this policy in place? You could always ask under Freedom of Information Act.

Another avenue might be to see if they would accept a sworn affidavit (oath witnessed by solicitor) that you have always lived there and paid the full rate.

aaajjj

Thought I was on a winner, Applied and got band reduced from E to D, then after 7 weeks chased council why had not heard despite paying first instalment, told due to being on council tax benefits due to low income and pensioner (just) and after asking why that stopped this years update was told that because I wasnt paying full tax should complain, testerday hit with a whammy by recieving a letter saying saying I had been overpaid and wanted £1145.OO or threatening court proceedings, Having checked thru all old bills and being on pension credit previously if you get tax benefit although your band is less your benefit also reduces accordingly and you still pay the same balance, subsequently altough I never ever got extra money now expected to pay back hefty amount i never had purely to pay what the council took out its left hand to pay its right hand, Have just wrote a stinking letter because I understand they cannot take money back if its somebody elses error and you couldnt reasonably foresee the mistake, see what happens now.

aaajjj

sorry said should instead of should not