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

grace21

Rooster_Booster wrote: »

Re: Council unable to refund from 1993 - 2000 due to the "Statute of limitaions"
The council has replied at last ....you cant beat reminding them with the same email every day of the week.

Well with due consideration after my "appeal". They have revised their decision and will be refunding me for the period 1993 - 2000. Robbing Ba***erds

Not sure whether its hard cash or will be taken from this years Council (wasters)Tax???

But a result.

Know just the task of reclaiming the compounded interest from the VOA.

Also wondering if its worth complaning about the lies they told me in their first letter???

Dont Give-up.

Rooster

Hi Rooster Booster,

WELL DONE!!! :T

Can you give me some tips on how to conquer my council?? By the way can you name your local council, I would hate to think they were mine and not letting me know!!!

Grace

guppy

grace21 wrote: »

Has any of the more experienced members of this forum got any suggestions what I should do next??

Grace

Hi Grace,

I can't think of any more official routes that haven't already been discussed...the LGO sounds useless. I would try writing to the VOA's head office to claim compensation, someone on the successes board said the VOA "leaned" on the council to pay out in their case.

This is maybe a long shot but how about sending another complaint together with a list of councils that do refund the money like they're supposed to? I'm not sure your council has any shame, but could this shame them in to action? Or maybe even see if you can get your local paper interested...council tax seems to be big news at the moment.

Send it to the Chief of your council, your elected Councillor, the Ombudsman and anyone else relevant asking why you're being penalised for living in your area. It won't hurt to remind them its your money.

The successes board would be a good place to start making up a list, or you could just phone and ask neighbouring councils their policy. They needn't know why you are asking etc.

I guess it depends how far you are prepared to go. I can't see you'd have anything to lose by putting in a small claim with the county court either...the council will know you're serious and may not even bother defending it.

The court can consider the legal arguments too. The fact virtually all other councils pay out would surely get the judge thinking...or am I too optimistic?

Good luck,

Guppy

vivatifosi

Following Grace's note, I've had a look at 100 of the 194 'invalid' tribunals listed on the VOA website. Quite an interesting exercise. Of the 100, only one was successful, a pitiful success rate. Having then looked at all the successful tribunals that I could access (using keywords invalid and upheld), almost all had appealed on the grounds of a material change in the local environment. One had appealed that his invalidity letter was wrong as he had heard of his band within the past six months and appealed accordingly.

Rather disturbing were some of the people who failed in their appeal, even though:
* They had missed the appeal deadline by one day and had failed to make their appeal earlier because the VOA website was down.
* They had moved back to the UK as their main residence from overseas and had become the residential taxpayer.
* Their husband had died and they had made the appeal within six months of becoming the 'main' taxpayer.
* Gradual change in an area had meant a change over a longer time and therefore would not be considered.
* Failure to make an earlier application for a downgrade in banding due to disabled conversion.
* The initial appeal (in time) had not been considered by the VOA as a formal appeal and the latter formal appeal was therefore invalid.
MOST IMPORTANTLY as it accounted for about 4-5% of invalid tribunals:
* The appelant had previously agreed to withdraw their 'in time' application to the VOA.

Here are some reasons that were found valid:
* House layout was changed from a 4 bed to a 3 bed/increase in traffic
* College falling into disrepair, was fully working at time bands were set.
* High polution levels from local factory.

Also found the following comments from tribunal interesting and of potential use:

Cumbria tribunal:
'The tribunal was very sympathetic to Mrs Ns frustration at not being able to challenge the accuracy of the council tax band but could find no reason in law which required the listing officer to accept her proposals to alter the valuation list.'

Manchester North:
'But if still aggrieved by the outcome of the review, the tribunal understood that the taxpayer is able to apply in writing to the Listing Officer for a second review to be carried out.'

Not good news, but appears you should never withdraw and to keep asking for another review.

guppy

Very interesting, vivatifosi.

While the VOA do win most Tribunals, this shouldn't put people off appealing. The VOA will generally only go to Tribunal if they believe they can win. I believe most reductions are conceded before the Tribunal hearing.

The other reason a lot of people lose would seem to be that they don't present any hard evidence. Anyway, vivatifosi has proved it can be done! :T

vivatifosi

Hi guppy,

I should clarify as I didn't make it very clear that I was only looking at Invalidity Tribunals, not the normal tribunal that I went to. The chances of winning a normal tribunal are significantly higher, and people have a good though not definite chance of winning if they do their research and provide relevant evidence. And you're right, the VOA frequently backs down before even going to any type of Tribunal.

The main problem with Invalidity Tribunals, and the panels say it time after time, is that the panel does not have the scope to judge the evidence placed before them, only whether or not the reason that the tribunal has been judged invalid is fair. The vast majority of people going to Invalidity Tribunals say the same things - "had I been aware of this sooner then I would have appealed in time", or "I could not have researched this sooner as the tools to do so have only become available relatively recently".

It is my personal belief having done this research, and I would really like to hear the opinions of others, that people receiving Invalidity Tribunal notices would have a better chance of winning (ie receiving a right to be heard at a full tribunal) if, upon receipt of their notice, they focused on the issues which the IT can look at. Specifically:
Has anyone won a previous tribunal/high court case in the past six months on the same house model or relevant house? This may be a useful option in towns where many of the house models are the same.
Has anything happened in my area that has led to a material reduction
in value and that I feel I can prove using the data?
Has anything happened to my house that could materially reduce its value? (I found the case of the reduction in the number of bedrooms quite informative as I was under the impression that you had to demolish part of the house, not just knock a wall down).
etc..

Sorry for not making this clearer in my earlier post.

PeteW

PeteW wrote: »

Student Discount

Hiya, for the last 2 years my girlfriend, who I live with, has been doing a masters degree. At first she was doing it full-time and now she is doing it part-time.

I believe that now she's only part-time, I'm not eligible for the discount, but I did not realise I could claim the discount while she was full time.

Am I able to reclaim the excess tax I paid whilst she was working full time?

Thanks

Pete

Anyone know the answer to this?

Grianne

I appealed to my local VO and got the 'Invalid proposal' letter, but also another letter with it saying they would review it anyway. All im asking for is a review into my banding anyway, so why bother with the invalid proposal letter.

It also states that this could go to a tribunal, but this is ONLY to deal with the validity of the proposal and NOT the actual banding.

I find this all rather confusing, or maybe im being dumb!

Zebedeee

PeteW wrote: »

Anyone know the answer to this?

PeteW,

I would have thought it is unlikely that you could claim in retrospect, but I'm not an expert. As it is not related to the actual tax band of the property I would have thought that you would do best to approach your council directly, as they are the ones who deal with tax reductions in cases like this. Give them a ring and ask to speak to someone in the Council Tax dept. I'm sure you'll soon get your answer.

Hope that helps!

Zebedee

Julie_McEvoy

Hi,
I am looking for some advice, I had a 1 bed flat in 1991 (18mnths old when I purchased for £42,500) , I was forced to "abandon" it in 1996 and it was sold by the Mortgage company for the then market value of £27,000 as the market had collapsed, I was up untill I left paying the same band tax as I was when I bought it, and by reading other related articles on this thread I should have been reduced down a band but do not know how to proceed further( if indeed I can), any advice would be great. Thanks

Zebedeee

Julie_McEvoy wrote: »

Hi,
I am looking for some advice, I had a 1 bed flat in 1991 (18mnths old when I purchased for £42,500) , I was forced to "abandon" it in 1996 and it was sold by the Mortgage company for the then market value of £27,000 as the market had collapsed, I was up untill I left paying the same band tax as I was when I bought it, and by reading other related articles on this thread I should have been reduced down a band but do not know how to proceed further( if indeed I can), any advice would be great. Thanks

Hi Julie

You cannot get a refund on council tax for a property in which you no longer live. However, if the current occupants were to succeed in a request for a rebanding you would probably get a refund for the overpayment while you were in the property.

Hope that helps!

Zebedee