Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

Kareninnes

Local Borough Council: Leicester City Council
Council Tax Band Before: D
Council Tax Band After: C
Amount refunded: Unsure. Roughly going to be £350
Annual saving going forward: Unsure.

After seeing a post on Facebook by Martin Lewis regarding council tax bandings I decided to take a look. I found that we were a D band yet next door who were the exact same property were a C band. We were a new property that was built in 2008 so I never questionned the council when they advised what our band was.
I sent in a recorded letter to our local valuation office with my evidence as all properties the exact same as ours were C band too. 2 weeks later I had a phone call to advise we have been lowered to a C band. They had been told we were a 5 bed property not a 3 bed property! Pretty scary as I would never of known if it wasn't for Martin!

We are getting a refund for our over paid amount from July 08 to Jan 10 and then we will have our 2010-2011 bill reduced and the remaining amount spread over the remaining months!

suecoo66

Its nice to hear some good experiences and I'm moving house soon and hoping to get the property rebanded. I'm going to a 4 bed detached house in Clacton that I believe should be in Band D but is Band E currently.
I've challenged banding before and was successful once but unsuccessful the 2nd time.
If your in a house built after 1991 it's a bit of a nightmare trying to prove how much the house was worth in that year.
I presented a really good case and on my first tribunal hearing the panel adjourned the case as the valuation officer evidence wasn't up to scratch. I was pretty annoyed about this as had my evidence not been so good I wouldn't have got another chance.
Then on the 2nd hearing he won. He even admitted when the panel were out that my house was borderline C/D. But the panel agreed with his evidence that he was right and my property should remain in band D. One of the reasons they gave on the notification letter was that my evidence for comparible properties didn't give the sq m of the property but his did.
I was also not happy that he used evidence from the Nationwide website but argued that my evidence was unreliable because I had used the same site.
I contacted the VOA via email asking if I could query the banding before I move in and received a phone call from the VOA stating that I would have to wait until I'm the taxpayer.
He told me I would have to either fill in the form or apply online.
When I quesitoned this and said that I'd heard it can be done in a phonecall he said that as I'd already made a proposal I couldn't do this but I hadn't even told him my new address?
I've used the Nationwide site again to calculate the price in 1991 using the purchase price and valuation from survey and also from the last sale price in 1991.
This has confirmed my thoughts that the property should be in Band D.
I've also looked at what bands neighbouring properties are in and I've seen some of them are in Band D that look like they are also 4 bed detached properties. I suppose I will have to wait till I move and can ask my neighbours before I can be sure of this.
I was told at my last tribunal hearing that the size of the garden cannot be taken into consideration, but I was wondering if having a single or double garage can?
I can't understand about garden siaze not being counted as this obviously affects value.

ElHabib

The nice couple who received £3000 cheque have dropped an envelope with £300 cash in to our house to say thankyou for appealing the band.
We didn't expect it but are going to enjoy the cash

Regards

Habib

lincroft1710

suecoo66 - anything which affects a dwelling's value can be reflected in the band. As sales info used by VOA does not include plot size, they tend to play down this aspect.

suecoo66

lincroft1710 wrote: »

suecoo66 - anything which affects a dwelling's value can be reflected in the band. As sales info used by VOA does not include plot size, they tend to play down this aspect.

Well that's what I thought but he disagreed with me and the panel didn't disagree. It all felt a bit one sided at the hearing to be honest even though they are meant to be independent. Even the tribunal clerk was surprised when they adjourned the case. Then the next one was cancelled as somehow it didn't get booked in.
Hoping I have more success with the Colxhester VOA officer.

lincroft1710

suecoo66 wrote: »

Well that's what I thought but he disagreed with me and the panel didn't disagree. It all felt a bit one sided at the hearing to be honest even though they are meant to be independent. Even the tribunal clerk was surprised when they adjourned the case. Then the next one was cancelled as somehow it didn't get booked in.
Hoping I have more success with the Colxhester VOA officer.

My experience (ex VOA, 12 yrs presenting cases at tribunal) has been that the Valuation Tribunal tend if anything to favour the taxpayer where there is little to choose between VOA's and taxpayer's evidence. There is no excuse for an adjourned case not being re-listed for hearing.

jaz8822

Local Borough Council: Gloucester City
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: E
Amount refunded: None
Annual saving going forward: Still trying to put my case forward!

Anyone got any ideas of how to take this forward?

Written 2 letters now, and I am only just in band E with the neighbour check. I am in one of the smaller detached houses, with neighbours all in the bigger detached ones with double garages and big gardens. I have put my case forward and given examples of sold price values being about £60,000 higher than mine.

They have said unfortunately this is how it works and I am in the bottom end of that band.

I feel though that my house would not have sold for more than £80,000 (Within Band D) in 1991 based on local area sales prices. (It is only 8 yrs old) They are taking prices from an area about 2.5 miles away because it is a more expensive nicer area to compare prices against. Can they do this? Surely they should look at prices for as close to where my house is built now?

Any ideas or help would be great as I think I've got a very raw deal!!

jaz8822

Totally agree that new homes built after 1991 is a complete nightmare! My council Glos. City have banded me in E, but I am the smallest house in that band compared to neighbours all in much larger homes/gardens/garages/sq. footage.

Also VOA are using an area 1991 to make my sold price in 1991 when I feel they should be taking values closer to my area now. I think they are using this area called Quedgely because it is a nice area, further from the city and industrial area where I am and I guess sold prices in the area they use are higher. Any ideas how to query this?
You seem to have a lot of experience in it and it's my first time to query. How did you get to tribunal stage?

lincroft1710

jazz8822 - as the difference between top and bottom of Band E is £32K which in percentage terms is 36% of lower end value (£88K), a 2002 price difference of £60K would not be unexpected between houses at top and bottom of the band.

It may be that Quedgeley is the nearest area where there are 1991 sales of similar houses. I understand the village has been extensively developed over the past few years and is now more or less just a suburb of Gloucester.

Kareninnes

Kareninnes wrote: »

Local Borough Council: Leicester City Council
Council Tax Band Before: D
Council Tax Band After: C
Amount refunded: Unsure. Roughly going to be £350
Annual saving going forward: Unsure.

After seeing a post on Facebook by Martin Lewis regarding council tax bandings I decided to take a look. I found that we were a D band yet next door who were the exact same property were a C band. We were a new property that was built in 2008 so I never questionned the council when they advised what our band was.
I sent in a recorded letter to our local valuation office with my evidence as all properties the exact same as ours were C band too. 2 weeks later I had a phone call to advise we have been lowered to a C band. They had been told we were a 5 bed property not a 3 bed property! Pretty scary as I would never of known if it wasn't for Martin!

We are getting a refund for our over paid amount from July 08 to Jan 10 and then we will have our 2010-2011 bill reduced and the remaining amount spread over the remaining months!

UPDATE!!

Local Borough Council: Leicester City Council
Council Tax Band Before: D
Council Tax Band After: C
Amount refunded: £256.99 refunded £156.58 taken off of this years bill (didn't take Augusts DD)
Annual saving going forward: Approx £150 per year.

Thank you so much MSE. It doesn't sound a lot, but this refund is helping us out tremendously.

Karen xxx