Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

lordstevens

Local Borough Council: Tunbridge Wells Borough Council
Council Tax Band Before: G
Council Tax Band After: F
Amount refunded: £3,200
Annual saving going forward: £220
Following your carefully laid out advice I initially contacted VOA ( Valuation Office Agency ) after checking neighbours banding and the valuation of property levels 1991 (the date of valuation for all council tax bandings ). The VOA wrote to me on 14th July 2010 to inform me that they would review my case. On the 6th August I received another letter from VOA to inform me that my council tax banding was incorrect and needs to be reduced. Good news is TWBC have credited £3,200 in my bank account from overpaid council tax. :beer:

Jase2k2k

I have just received a refund – Thanks you so much for all the info.
Local Borough Council: Scarborough (North Yorkshire)
Council Tax Band Before: B
Council Tax Band After: A
Amount refunded: £679.86
Annual saving going forward: £170.59
It was so simple when following the guide – All of the other similar houses in my street were the lower band and mine had been upped when we bought the house in 2005. A bit naughty of the local council! It took about 2 months to change and refund - Without any quibble from them.

chookeypeg

This is our second attempt at trying to get our council tax rebanded and thankfully our patience paid off!

Mole Valley
Band before = E
Band after = D
Refunded £641 plus the remaining months until Feb 2011 reduced to £99
Annual saving £400

We first tried to challenge our council tax just after we moved in but were unsuccessful. Now, 20 months after moving in and after various discussions with neighbours (who were all Band D with exactly the same houses) we tried again. It took quite a while but unlike the first time, the Valuations Office didn't respond straightaway so we knew that they must be looking into it.

When we challenged second time around, we wrote a comprehensive letter to the Valuation Office stating a number of reasons why we should be Band D and also, I'm convinced that enclosing our Land Registry documents helped as well as these clearly showed the amount of land that we own is vastly less to what the previous owners of the property held. It did take nearly 2 months but it was a wait worth waiting for. We had our council tax rebanded and it was also backdated 20 months to the date we moved in.

So - always enclose as much evidence as you can when you initially contact the Valuations Office.

Thanks Martin for your help in this - I'm letting all my friends/relatives know about your site and also to check their council tax situation too.

barrance37

Am unable to convince the VOA to accept the calculations of the Nationwide house price indicator. Perhaps because it was in my favour!
They say it can be misleading as it covers prices over large geographical areas.

Question. Is there a site that gives info on the actual price properties were sold for in 1991?

lincroft1710

barrance37 wrote: »

Am unable to convince the VOA to accept the calculations of the Nationwide house price indicator. Perhaps because it was in my favour!
They say it can be misleading as it covers prices over large geographical areas.

Question. Is there a site that gives info on the actual price properties were sold for in 1991?

I'm ex VOA and found that Nationwide's attempt to calculate 1991 values from later sales always resulted in lower values than actual 1991 sale prices. The geographical area is far too large to be accurate.

There is no site which gives 1991 sale prices.

barrance37

Many thanks for the info`lincroft1710` Busy trawling local newspaper archives at present with limited success. Any xtra advice welcome.

jayneben

Hiya all
not sure if anyone can help but I'm lookin for a bit of advice ! I live in an end terrace house in a block of 6 the other 5 properties including the other end terrace pay band A but we pay band B ! The other end has a driveway that is for private use where as all the other properties have shared access to ours so we don't even have privacy ! I wrote to voa about 2 years ago 2 appeal banding & was refused I wrote again giving my reasons & was again turned down I even wrote again last yr but again no joy , when I again called to express my concerns I spoke to the officer who had delt with my claim on the 3rd letter she informed me that she didn't even look into my claim as it had previosly been turned down !
My question now is what do I do next as I still believe that 6 identical houses should be on the same banding ??
Any help no matter how small would be gratefully recieved !

Pedders

A big thank you for this advice. All it took was one phone call to Sedgemoor District Council and a few weeks later I received a cheque for over £1200 and a reduction in my council tax bill. Delighted!

paulh2008

Good Luck! I'm in a higher band than my neighbour with an identical house, but the valuation people wouldn't wear it saying I paid the correct price whereas they paid a low price as it was a dump (and still is, for which *I* should be paying the lower rate!). Other houses of a slightly different type are spread over three bandings. The valuation people have their own historical valuations, they won't necessarily take any notice of yours.

tontowood

I followed Martin's guide because I have thought for years that we were overbanded. In short the council is Eastleigh, the house was a band F, now rebanded as an E, and as we have been in the property for 16 years, they went right back to 1994 for the rebate. The rebate was £3800! And we have approximately £300 pa less to pay in the future.
I called the local valuation department, and a man took my details, telling me it would take approximately 8 weeks to come back with an answer. Within three weeks we had heard form the valuation department agreeing with our request. Two letters followed talking about their process, then a cheque from Eastleigh BC arrived - about 6 weeks after initial question. Total award £3800, but they took off our remaining council tax bill for the year, giving us the balance in a cheque. Very straightforward, and Martin's system works. Thank you Martin!!