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

babyt_2

Hiya all,

not sure if this has been answered but is it possible to get a previous property you lived in assessed as you would of been overpaying when you lived there? Or do you have no right because you no longer reside there?

Thanks

wirehair

Can anyone let me know where I stand please.
Just after Xmas I rang the valuation office and asked for them to look at my Council tax banding as I thought it was not correct ,they took all the details and said they would be in touch . We have lived in our bungalow for 13years.
Two weeks later my husband passed away , and having so much on my mind I forgot about the valuation office . I notified the council of my husband's death and they closed the account that was in both our names and gave me a new account in my name. Today I have just recieved a letter from the valuation department telling me that they have changed my banding and that I am now a D (I was E ) so I am very pleased about that as its over £350 less than I was paying . My question is this . As the account has now been closed and a new one opened will I still get the 13years of overpayment refunded .Or have I lost it. Any advice will be much appreciated , as it will be serveral weeks before the council get in touch , and that money would be very welcome at the moment. Thanks.

Zebedeee

wirehair wrote: »

Can anyone let me know where I stand please.
Just after Xmas I rang the valuation office and asked for them to look at my Council tax banding as I thought it was not correct ,they took all the details and said they would be in touch . We have lived in our bungalow for 13years.
Two weeks later my husband passed away , and having so much on my mind I forgot about the valuation office . I notified the council of my husband's death and they closed the account that was in both our names and gave me a new account in my name. Today I have just recieved a letter from the valuation department telling me that they have changed my banding and that I am now a D (I was E ) so I am very pleased about that as its over £350 less than I was paying . My question is this . As the account has now been closed and a new one opened will I still get the 13years of overpayment refunded .Or have I lost it. Any advice will be much appreciated , as it will be serveral weeks before the council get in touch , and that money would be very welcome at the moment. Thanks.

Hi

Terribly sorry to hear about your sad loss. When you have a big upset like that mundane things like Council Tax get forgotten about, and rightly so. You have had more important things to concentrate on. As for your refund, your husband passing away should make no difference at all to getting your money and you should get the whole lot back with no problem. I hope they do it quickly for you!

If you have any more questions just pop them on this forum and I'm sure someone will be able to help.

All the very best,

Zebedeee

johnsmiffy

Having contact my local VOA to request a review of my banding (currently , I have received a letter saying that my house (end terrace, and ones like it) were selling just above the £40k, whilst the others (mid terrace) were selling below the £40k.

However, if I could "provide specific sales evidence that contradicts the view" then I would have to like it or lump it!:mad: Why should I do the VOA's job for them?

Having calculated the figures prior to initially contacting the VOA (from the main page, using the links) All houses like ours would have been around the lower band limit - the majority below the £40k.

Today I have contacted the person who wrote the letter to discuss the facts, and she was very "confused".
1 - She thought that I was talking about the other end of the band, £52k!
2 - She tried to explain what state the housing market was in during the early 1990's.
3 - She woundered where I got the recent sales figures for houses like mine - she even took the web address of Nethouseprices.com!:rotfl:

Eventually she agreed that she would need to look at my case again!:j

It just makes me ask the question did she even look at my request properly in the first case, or did she just print-out and send a bog standard NO letter.

The latter I feel, considering it only took 3 days to get a reply in the first instance, and it will take at-least a week to get a reply from this new review!

Zebedeee

johnsmiffy wrote: »

It just makes me ask the question did she even look at my request properly in the first case, or did she just print-out and send a bog standard NO letter.

I think that is just about the size of it. Frequently you just get the standard letter and they hope you will go away. I'm afraid the onus is on the tax payer to come up with the evidence for change of band. Have a good look through this forum and you'll find lots of good advice on how to proceed.

All the best with that!

Zebedeee

Mum_of_5_2

I'm interested to know how people are finding house prices to compare with their own from 1990-91! All the websites don't go back that far and as I know what i bought my house for in 1990, i think if i can provide evidence of other sales around me then it's fairly unarguable as i have my sales price. Also my sister said she argued her banding years ago and while they rebanded they didn't refund. Do you definitley get your money back?

thanks

johnsmiffy

Zebedeee wrote: »

I think that is just about the size of it. Frequently you just get the standard letter and they hope you will go away. I'm afraid the onus is on the tax payer to come up with the evidence for change of band. Have a good look through this forum and you'll find lots of good advice on how to proceed.

All the best with that!

Zebedeee

Thanks Zebedee keeping my fingers crossed.

Just made me laugh that she wanted to know the nethouseprices web site! She says that they use the official figures from land registry - so why would she want to use another source?!

She did, however, go very quiet when I said it was possible that the initial valuation could have been done by an estate agent just going through the addresses, and just 'making valuations up' based upon terraced/end terraced/detached/semi, etc.

johnsmiffy

Mum_of_5 wrote: »

I'm interested to know how people are finding house prices to compare with their own from 1990-91! All the websites don't go back that far and as I know what i bought my house for in 1990, i think if i can provide evidence of other sales around me then it's fairly unarguable as i have my sales price. Also my sister said she argued her banding years ago and while they rebanded they didn't refund. Do you definitley get your money back?

thanks

Look at the page on the main site. It tells you how to on there, and what sites to use.

Click the Reclaim £1000's tab on the banner at the top, and find the Council tax rebanding header on there.

Zebedeee

Mum of 5, check out my post #1962 for where to find house prices.

Also, to quote Vivatifosi, "In terms of when a rebanding takes effect, if the list is corrected rather than amended due to a change in circumstances (eg a motorway has been built next door), this should be backdated to when the listing came into effect. You would then receive a refund for overpayment for the amount of time that you have lived there."

Have a good look through the posts on this forum. There can't be many questions which haven't already been answered on here!

Hope that helps!

Zebedeee

Mum_of_5_2

Thanks for that, i must have missed it when reading it. I did see about looking in local newspapers but our library here i shut for at least another year so i can't do that!

thanks again