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

RicPg7

I believe I have a very strong case for rebanding (down!). Regarding refund of past overpayments, is it best to (hopefully) get rebanded first then apply for this, or should the refund be automatic? Should it be applied for at the time of requesting rebanding, or could this affect the outcome? Can anyone advise??

lincroft1710

RicPg7 wrote: »

I believe I have a very strong case for rebanding (down!). Regarding refund of past overpayments, is it best to (hopefully) get rebanded first then apply for this, or should the refund be automatic? Should it be applied for at the time of requesting rebanding, or could this affect the outcome? Can anyone advise??

If you get rebanded, the refund should be automatic. Rebanding and refunding are carried out by two completely separate entities. Any request for a refund before there has been a reband will be either refused or simply ignored.

mrstommo2

when we moved into our 2 bed semi bungalow- which had had a small extension since the original band was set-
the council sent a letter within weeks that they wanted to asses us

they then rebanded us higher than our neighbours who have exactly the same size extension-

they said thay are allowed to re-asses/band when a property has changed owners-

so for 5 years we have been paying more than our neighbour - is this law, or should i still appeal ??

lincroft1710

A CT band can be reviewed at any time, but the band cannot be increased on account of any alterations which have taken place after 1 Apr 1993 (1 Apr 2005 in Wales) and carried out by the current owner.

So if a property is sold and there have been alterations prior to the sale date which are not reflected in the band, then CT law permits the band to be increased following the sale.

schofy

Hi there
My mate had a chap knock on his door from a firm called MoneySavingDirect.com who claimed they were in his area visiting houses that were paying more in council tax than their neighbours and were offering to do all the leg work for free in the agreement that any money overpaid that would be claimed back would be split 50/50.

I have my reservations about this, As my dad used to say and still does to be fair, If it sounds to good to be true it probably is.
Has anyone heard of this company or this recent scheme that they are carrying out.

The only thing I've found on the net so far is posts from what appears to a disgruntled employee :think:

getsct

moneysavingdirect and other similar companies CT Reband CT Bandings and others are agents who are trying to make money out of you by taking your case to the VOA on you behalf. You can contact the VOA yourself if you believe you are in the wrong band the contact number is 03000 501501 and the service is free of course. Also if it results in a refund from you council you will keep 100% of it.

The VOA phone system is currently undergoing repair so your query will be logged and a staff member will contact you back the same day to discuss your case. Also all cases are taking upto 2 months to complete due to the amount of queries we are currently recieving as they are processed in order of reciept.

Also in most cases we find evidence submitted by these companies is groundless.

TerencePhilips

Hopefully someone can help me make sense of a decision made by the council on my re banding appeal.
We live in a small terrace block, the end terrace is band A, which has garage more land etc..we live mid terrace but are band B. On the strength of this we though it worthy of an appeal and having lived here since 1971.
After a 10 week wait, we received the decision whish was rejected with no right to appeal on the grounds of us having a small living room extention in 1998. This has somewhat baffled us as we have owned the property since 1971, i was under the assumption that this would not affect banding until sold?
The other point to note is we are a 2 bedroom house, as is the other terrace which is Band A, on the other end of the same terrace block is a 3 bedroom end terrace, which is also Band B?

Any help and direction would be greatly appreciated.

Luvliss

Here's a case AGAINST rebanding - especially if you're a tenant on a small amount of council tax benefit!


HURRAY, got my council tax rebanded from D to C in a privately rented property, without having to do any of the legwork because the landlord did it - no notification to me, oh well it's thier property, and I would have said, rebanding? Go for it! GREAT - expect a refund! NO. I've just been hit with a bill for an extra 3-£400 because 'When you get a lower band, you get lower benefit'. £2-3 difference over the course of two years, and they send me a demand for it right away without explaining why. I feel sick to the pit of my stomach, as I and I'm sure many others will understand, I cannot even afford to pay the normal £100 a month council tax. If I were you, don't bother, it didn't help me in any way what-so-ever.

M.A.J.T._King

The house we occupy on the Bovis estate in Brough is described as 'The Kingsley' and is situated in the middle one of three parallel cul-de-sacs on the east side of the estate bordering on Common Lane. In this part of the estate just eight 'Kingsley' design houses were built. In my cul-de-sac our Kingsley house was one of nine houses of differing designs.

When we moved in we learned that of the nine houses, seven were banded as 'G' whilst the two smaller houses were banded as 'F'. As our house was one of those banded as 'G' we saw no reason to complain. After living in the property for some five years, and quite by chance, we learned that five of the seven houses that had originally been banded as 'G' had, at some point in the previous three years been re-banded to 'F' by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) leaving only our house and one other as 'G'. I assembled a portfolio of evidence on the pricing of houses in the area and made representation to the VOA and was told here was nothing we could do. We then approached the Valuation Tribulation (VT) who told us they could do nothing as I had gone past the 6 month dead line for appealing against a banding. Of course we pointed out to the VT that we would not have needed to know about the appeal process as , initially, most of our immediate neighbours were on the same band as us, and the VOA had not told us that they were going to re-band the other houses in the cul-de-sac.

Then the VT dropped a bombshell. They told us that a resident of a 'Kingsley' design house in one of the other cul-de-sacs had won a successful appeal against his 'G' band and had been re-banded as 'F'. As might be imagined we were furious that someone in a house of identical design to ours was now paying £500 a year less in Council Tax than we were. We were even more taken aback when the VT sent us the papers on that successful appeal. The package of data sent in by the resident of that identiical 'Kingsley' property was, in almost every respect, identical to the evidence we had submitted even though we had never spoken to the owner and knew nothing of his appeal. We should add that there is one important difference between my 'Kingsley' house and his 'Kingsley' house which is that his plot is larger than mine.

We went back to the VOA who told us there were "differences" between the two cases but would not tell us what they were. The VT told us that it was usual and customary for the VOA to take the decisions of the VT and apply them to "similar" properties in the "vicinity" of a successful appeal. When we asked the VOA why they would not apply the VT decision to not just our 'Kingsley' design house, but to the other six 'Kingsley' houses in the vicinity they refused to say.

We then went to the local government ombudsman who said they could do nothing but suggested we went to the HMRC adjudicator in London. This we did but it was only possible to do so by going through our local MP, David Davis. The Adjudicator said the VOA were refusing to back down and she could not force them to apply the VT decision. The adjucator did suggest that we might be able to put forward a case for re-banding our property on the basis that the nature of the estate had changed substantially as a consequence of the council allowing a greater density of houses to be built than was originally allowed for. I refused to do this as there was already a precedent for re-banding 'Kingsley' design houses which had been take some years previously as a result of the VT decision. Additionally, the Adjudicator told us that a significant element of the original banding decision by the VOA had been the square footage of the houses. It was immdeiatley apparent to us that the two houses in our cul-de-sac who did not get their banding changed by the VOA had integral double garages whilst the other five houses who did have their banding changed had detached or linked double garages. I then discovered that the VOA were counting the square footage of our double garage as part of the living accomodation of the house. When we pointed this out to the Adjudicator she said the VOA were still not going to change their original banding of our house.

Despite the very obvious injustice of this case we are still in the position of paying £500 a year more in council tax than a fellow resident of this estate who lives in an identical house to ours. This has now been going on for over six years. The amount in question now exceeds £2,500. We are now at a loss as to what to do next but surely there must be some way of rectifying this dreadful state of affairs.

CIS

HURRAY, got my council tax rebanded from D to C in a privately rented property, without having to do any of the legwork because the landlord did it - no notification to me, oh well it's thier property, and I would have said, rebanding? Go for it! GREAT - expect a refund! NO. I've just been hit with a bill for an extra 3-£400 because 'When you get a lower band, you get lower benefit'. £2-3 difference over the course of two years, and they send me a demand for it right away without explaining why. I feel sick to the pit of my stomach, as I and I'm sure many others will understand, I cannot even afford to pay the normal £100 a month council tax. If I were you, don't bother, it didn't help me in any way what-so-ever.

There has to be more than the re-banding involved - the re-banding doesn't lower the amount of council tax benefit being paid (unless your on full council tax benefit and its capped at the value of the band)