Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

Bruce_

Local Borough Council: Sevenoaks District Council
Council Tax Band Before: F
Council Tax Band After: E
Amount refunded: £2000
Annual saving going forward: £338

Rang the local VOA a few weeks ago. Explained why I thought a drop in band was needed, as per the MSE info. Received a letter last week to say they agreed. Today I received a letter from the council, stating that I had been credited a refund. A very nice start to the festive season!

Thanks to the MSE team for the info on what to do.

mjg224

Hi can i just start by saying congratulations to everyone who has successfully had their band changed, the reason i am posting here is I have started an online petition on the downing street website to get everyones council tax band corrected and the more signatures the better as councils and valuation boards have been getting away with this for too long, i live in a street with 54 houses all the same size and same structure, yet 51 of the propertys are band A and 3 of us are band B. The valuation board have admitted the band B propertys are wrong and they say they can put our 3 houses into band A but they are not going to change them, it has been ongoing for nearly 2 years now but i am not going to give up, Thanks everyone

I cannot post links due to not have posted enough but if you go to the downing street website and search 'counciltaxband' and add sigantures thanks

lincroft1710

Mjg224 - just looked at Number10.gov.uk but search does not seem to acknowledge any CT petition.

kimmee

Hi

I'm really unsure if I have got a claim so I would be very grateful for any advice please.

My parents moved into a brand new 3 bed bungalow in 1987 and my aunt moved into an identical one, again in 1987, two doors up. I inherited my aunts property in 2005 and was horrified that the bungalow was banded 'E'. I heard Martin saying that you could challenge the banding a couple of years ago but when I looked into it I couldn't see how I could make a claim.

We live on a modern housing estate where there are all shapes and sizes of properties but mine and my mums are the only two 3 bed bungalows with double garages BUT in our road there are several 4 bedroom houses, some with double garages and some with single and they are all banded as 'D'. I would have thought any 4 bedroom houses (especially the ones with double garages) would be worth more than my property as some of them have significantly more square footage than mine - but my 'plot' is probably larger than the houses.

Any thoughts please? I know I could phone the local Valuation Office but I'm a bit nervous of things like that unless I'm pretty sure of my facts.

Thanks

Kimmee

lincroft1710

kimmee - just phone the VOA!

However Band E for a 3 bed det bungalow with double garage near Cambridge doesn't seem that unreasonable. It may be that the 4 bed houses in Band D are underbanded. But bungalows do sell for more than equivalent size house and very few new ones are/have been built in comparison to houses/apartments, so CT bands will reflect desirability.

BTW 1987 prices weren't that dissimilar to those in 1991, so it's worth checking what your parents paid for theirs and possibly your own home.

If you did get reduction to Band D on both bungalows, not only can your parents claim back to 1993 and you to 2005, but the executor(s) of your aunt's estate can claim between 1993 and 2005.

So phone VOA on Monday morning.

kimmee

Thanks for the advice Lincroft - I guess nothing ventured and all that! I certainly didn't know that we could claim that far back and that the executers (my mum) could claim for before my aunt died.

Thanks again

gwen80

Hi :wave:

I wanted to post my success story. I've been in my house for roughly 5 and a half years, have always wondered if my council tax band might be wrong as almost every other house similar to mine (and some a fair bit bigger than mine, are in the band below). After putting it off for years, I finally followed Martin's guide and did a bit of extra research using maps and plans on the internet and it seemed to me, that I had quite a good case. I called up the VOA last month and today I have received a letter stating that my council tax band will be moved down from Band B to Band A. I'm thrilled! :j

I'm hoping that it might be back-dated, in which case, I would receive approximately £850, but trying not to get my hopes up

Gwen

telekom

I'd like to say a big thank you to moneysaving expert.com. I followed the advice in the council tax re-banding article. A few weeks later I got an email from the assessor agreeing that I should be re-banded. And just a few days ago I got my cheque back from Glasgow City Council for £513!!! My payments for the rest of the year have gone down substantially and from next April I will be paying a lot less.

I was initially quite unsure about doing this, as I thought it would take a lot of time and hassle. I was wrong! In total I sent three emails and made one phone call - to a very nice woman at GCC who agreed to speed up the cheque for me. And now I've got the money back. I'm amazed and very happy. I got my friend to do the same - he stands to gain nine years of much-needed cash back from the council.

Thank you Martin and all the people at the site. I HIGHLY recommend others follow this advice too!

Mark

Malinky_2

Council - Leeds
Previous Band - C
New Band - B
Refunded - £800
Saving per year - £145

I nearly didn't bother with this - I live on a street of identical houses so it never occurred to me that there would be different bandings on the same street but then I found myself with a few minutes to spare and thought I'd just have a quick look. Low and behold, the house next door to us (the other half of our semi) is a band B, as are about half the houses on the street, and we were a C.
I sent one, v short, email to the Valuation Office in early November asking for a re-evaluation, they replied about 3 weeks later saying they would look at the case and would contact us within 2 months. We received a letter yesterday confirming that we have been rebanded to a B and will receive a rebate of just over £800.

I never thought it would be so easy! Thank you Martin and everyone at MoneySavingExpert.com!!!:T

coreden

:jLocal Borough Council: Burnley
Council Tax Band Before:E
Council Tax Band After:D
Amount refunded:£3621.73
Annual saving going forward:£284.98

I thought there was little chance of getting anything out of this - but with nothing to lose I'd have a go, so I followed your suggested format.
After checking the banding of the houses either side of me (all identical) it turned out one was band D and the other two (including mine) band E - and all built at the same time.
On a fairly modern estate there weren't that many houses of this size and layout but I checked them out and found that the latest to be built were in the higher band, while the rest were in the lower.
Wrote to the Local Listing Officer explaining the situation and got a 'put down' to the effect there were reasons for these things and they would not be changing my banding.
I then went out and photographed various houses of the same type, and submitted details of all of them.
I started this exercise in June and the final decision came through in December - well worth the time and effort.
Thank you for highlighting the possibilities, for so clearly setting out how to claim - and for pointing out that the initial response doesn't have to end the matter.