Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

lincroft1710

boromir wrote: »

Hi all,

I have recently challenged my CTB, after the initial conversation I had with a very helpful chap at the VOB who informed me that 'I could have a very good case here' I thought I was on to a sure fire winner!
Sadly I went through the process and was contacted roughly two months later by letter, I was informed that the valuations officer had taken a look at my house and decided that I was indeed in the right council tax band and that I had no recourse for appeal as her decision was full and final. Not sure if this is important but we had no visit from them.

Sorry I'm getting ahead of myself here,

I live in a three bedroom detached house, I have one bathroom and 1 additional downstairs toilet. I have land with my house but we are not talking anything more than a big garden!
I live on a mixed street of semi detached houses and around 8 other detached properties. My neighbour has exactly the same number bedrooms and toilets as me with roughly the same sized garden. The only difference is that my house is slightly bigger.
My council tax banding is a D and my neighbours is a B, the next house is a semi and that is an A.

One thing that was mentioned in the letter is that she intends to look into 'possibly' raising the banding of other houses in the area.

So money saving experts - Any ideas on my next step??

Do I just accept it or could there be something more I can gain from this??

It does seem as if they are inconsistencies with the bands in your street. It does depend on the area but D does not seem excessive for a 3 bed detached, so VOA may be right in thinking other bands are too low.

Check the bands of other 3 bed detached in the area. If they are Band C or less, it's worth contacting VOA again.

BElectric

Local Borough Council: North Somerset
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount refunded: £3000-3500 (estimate)
Annual saving going forward: £300+ p/a

A couple of months ago, we received a letter from a firm of NWNF ambulance chasers informing us that we were possibly in the wrong council tax band and that if we completed and returned their form they would investigate for us . . . in return for a 25% cut of any refund.

We had thought for some time that we were wrongly banded and we were going to return the form when I thought It would be a good idea to look here first. I did the back calculation and determined that our house was borderline band D/E at the time the valuations were done back in 1991. Our house is a three-bedroom semi, and looking at the bandings for other properties in this street, I found that we were in the same band as larger detached properties with bigger gardens. Also, 2 new three-bedroom detached houses were built 3 doors away in 2007 and although they are valued higher than our house, they had been assessed as band D.

Armed with this information, I called the local VOA office. After just 10 minutes on the phone and few questions about our property and the reasons why I thought we should be reviewed, the officer agreed that we had good justification for requesting a review - although it was possible the other properties would be increased rather than ours being decreased. She said they would write to us with their decision within 8 weeks.

This morning (7 weeks, 5 days later), we received a letter from the VOA informing us that we had been re-banded from E to D. We bought this house in 1983 so we are due a refund of the difference for the entire 17 years since council tax was introduced.

We haven't heard from the council yet, but having done some rough calculations, the refund will be a minimum of £3000 and possibly closer to £4000. Plus, of course, a saving of over £300 p/a going forward!

MSE has saved us at least £750 in commission for just half an hour research and a 10 minute phone call. Without this site, we may have got nothing as the ambulance chasers wouldn't have had the information about the two new houses we used for comparison.

I'm thinking of sending them a nice thank-you letter anyway . . . and possibly a £5 cheque for giving us the idea.

:money::beer:

misslizzi

Local Council: Leeds City Council
Band Before: B
Band After: A
Amount Refunded: Was due about £500’s but opted for a year without having to pay any council tax and a cheque of about £40 to balance things out.
Annual saving: About £200 per year saving.

Took me a few years to prove this. 1st query I made, I was told that my property was substantially larger then one I was comparing with. I knew this was wrong and managed to get a copy of property plans from housing association to prove that mine & other property were that same. I live in a new development so banding varies but my property is one of two in the exact same style/layout. Once I had plans to prove my case, contacted back VAO and they arrange t send someone out to re-measure my property. When the guy arrived I showed him property plans and he said that’s all her needed!! A few weeks later my banding had been adjusted and my current council tax bill wiped!

Thanks MSE!!!! :j:money::)

MrsD1489

Local Borough Council: Wirral
Council Tax Band Before: B
Council Tax Band After: A
Amount refunded: just over £1200

Hi,

I read Martin's tip about checking council tax banding, and decided to have a look. In May this year, I checked on the VOA website and I found that the property to the left (which has more land than us) was band B, but the house to the right, which is identical, was band A, so I emailed the Valuation Office Agency and asked them to review it. I heard nothing for about 8 weeks, then when I had just about forgotten about it, I got a letter saying that I was being rebanded to "A", and that they had informed the Council.

I hadn't even spoken to the Council, yet within 4 days I got a letter from Wirral Borough Council confirming the change and informing me that I was due a refund from when I moved in. A few days later they transferred @ £1200 into my account by BACS, and reduced my monthly payments with immediate effect.

I couldn't believe how easy it was! And I can't fault WBC for their efficiency in dealing with it.

Debbiedoos

So grateful to Martin and the brilliant MSE. :T I had previously read on the site re incorrect Council Tax Banding and had logged mentally to look into ours.As we moved into a brand new home 6 years ago I assumed that the coding would be correct.

How wrong I was!

I received my regular weekly MSE email and there was another article re the bands. I took this as a message to now look into.

It was easy to do and very quickly I found that bizarrely our house, a four bedroom town house, was one band higher than all the similar ones on the estate. I then looked at 5 bedroom houses and these all were the band lower.

With this evidence I then established where to write to. I then assumed would take weeks. Again wrong!

Within a week we had a letter advising that I was correct and the banding had been incorrect from when we moved in. Within a further 2 weeks we received a refund of £793. Fantastic :jso thank you very much Martin. I have always been impressed with your service and now even more so.

And as the saying goes never assume, it makes an !!! out you and me :rotfl::rotfl:

So it is worth spening no more than 2 hours to look into and send a letter. Good hourly rate.

Good luck to you and :beer:

whitesp

Local Council: Wiltshire Council
Band Before: C
Band After: B
Amount Refunded: £1017
Annual saving: About £200 per year saving.

After checking the VOA site to see what others in my street were being charged in 2007. I was amused that the left hand side of the road was Band B and the right hand side was Band C - properties were identical. As I had lived there for over 6 months, i thought that I would apply to have the banding changed only to have the first application invalided on those grounds. I sat tight for a few years and then i read with interest (on MSE) that the VOA had changed the way they had to assess applications and thought that i would try again, but this time do a more detailed letter which included photos of all properties and diagrams of the internal rooms. I also used the MSE tool to calculate the house prices in 1993 - it was borderline, but i thought i had nothing to lose. I recently had a reply from the VOA saying that they don't recognise the information that would have been generated by the Nationwide tool and purely worked on actual sales around 1993 - of course, houseprices and mouseprice etc does not hold such data for around that date. Fortunately for me, they had some actual sale information from 1991 which backed my claim. Verdict - The officer validated my application and changed my banding from C to B - and then backdated it to the 90's!

A few words of warning - roughly work out what the council should owe you - They should send revised statements for each year refunded!!

It feels good, that for a change, the Council has to pay me money. I will savour every minute of spending it!

If any MSE reader need some idea of detail of my letter then please contact me - glad to help.

Thanks MSE - you're great!

loopy75

I've just checked the website for tax banding in Scotland and it say's that I can only appeal within the first 6 months of moving in :mad::mad:. As a first time buyer, you just believe what the council is telling you to pay is correct. :question:

Just wanted to know if anyone from scotland managed to appeal outside the 6 months. According to all calulations etc I should be a band A and not B thus saving £17 per month.

Hopefully get some feedback :T

Loopy

ps a wee bit scared in case it goes up :eek::eek:

ElHabib

Hi All

We moved into our house just over 6 months ago and it was band E. We had 2 kids and twins on the way so this was a big bill every month. As a good MS I was trawling this website for ideas and thought I would check my neighbours. Low and behold identical houses in our row of 5 houses were all D. I used the Hinkley and Bosworth website to appeal and 6 weeks later a revised bill showing a saving of £400 this year and every year going forward. The nice couple we bought the house of who had lived here since council tax began got a check for nearly £3000 through the post.

Local Borough Council: Hinkley and Bosworth
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount refunded: £400
Annual saving going forward: £400


Regards

Habib

ElHabib

All councils in England, Wales and Scotland say that you can appeal within 6 months however they have a duty to ensure that people are paying the right amount of council tax.
It is far easier to do it within 6 months as there is an official system but if you are confident that your band is wrong i.e. neighbours check and valuation from the 90s then write to the local assessor setting out your case.

saa.gov.uk/introduction.html (i can't post links but paste this in your browser with www. infront.


Best of luck

Habib

magnet9300

Read Martins artical on council tax rebanding and managed to get a reband and refund

london Borough of Barnet
New band E
Previous Band F
Amount refunded £2500
Saving £400 per anum

Checked all properties on my street on the VOA site found they were all band D or E. Wrote to council they wrote back with the usual too late not done within 6 months.

I wrote back and advsied them they had a legal obligation to correct the valuation. They advised they could only do an informal enquiry which they did.

Surprise surprise they rejected my claim. Wrote to them again insited they were wrong based on other property bandings on my street. They visited and measured. Wrote to me again quoting an example of a similar sized property banded one level below me but still rejected my claim.

They had obviously made an error as how can a property measuring the same as mine on the same street be one band lower than mine.

I rejected their descision based on the above, they promptly wrote back advsing they had reduced the badig and sent me a refind check of £2500.

hooray!! thanks Martin keep up the fantastic work :beer: