Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

ashalb

Mid Beds Council
Tax band before: C
Tax band after: B
£1,232 Refunded
£190 saving for the year.

After receiving a letter from a private company claimimg that I could possibly be in the wrong council tax band and that they could fight the case for us at a cost of 25% of claim if successful, I decided to investigate myself.
I was told by a friend to have a look on this website as it told you how to do it. That is exactly what I done, followed it step by step.
I discovered that both my neighbours were a band B and I was a band C although our properties are the same. Following the link to my local valuation officer, I then gave them a call expressing my findings and suggested that I was in the wrong band. The valuation officer took down some details and told me that their findings could take up to 8 weeks to report back.
Approxiamatley 4 weeks later I received a letter from the valuation agency informing me that I was infact in the wrong band and they would contact the council informing of this.
Only 2 weeks ago I received my refund straight back into my bank account aswell as a lettter detailing the refund dating back to when I moved into the property. All in all the whole process probably took about 8 weeks but definately worth doing :T.

tommyc123

I notice that everone on here seems to get quite a large refund suggesting you have lived there more than 6 months. Is that criteria for applications just a load of rubbish then??

lincroft1710

tommyc123 wrote: »

I notice that everone on here seems to get quite a large refund suggesting you have lived there more than 6 months. Is that criteria for applications just a load of rubbish then??

You can ask for a review of your CT band at any time, but unless you provide evidence to justify your band is incorrect, you'll basically be told the band is correct.

However if you have occupied your home for less than 6 months you have the right to make a formal appeal against your CT band. Then if the VOA or Assessor (Scotland) says the band is OK but you still disagree, you have the right for the appeal to be heard by the independent Valuation Tribunal.

reggins

Local Council: Durham County Council
Band before: D
Band after: C
Amount refunded: £1946
Annual saving: £177

We followed your guide and it was really easy. We live in a terrace of 18 houses and the banding check revealed that all the others in the terrace were Band C, whereas our house was Band D. The free house price valuation guide was not so helpful, as it related only to "the North" and gave a price in 1991 of £85,000. But we had paid £75,000 in 1997, so we thought it was a reasonable bet that it would have been below the relevant price of £68,000 in 1991. We telephoned the Valuations Office to request a review and they wrote to us on 29/02/2012 to confirm that they would carry out the review. They wrote again on 03/04/2012 to advise us that they would be reducing the banding to Band C and again on 09/04/2012 with the formal re-valuation. The refund of £1,946 was paid into our bank account by BACS today (14/04/2012). Thank you very much Martin for the helpful advice, without which we wouldn't even have thought about our counncil tax banding - we'll be off on holiday somewhere to enjoy the proceeds!:j

jimmyb71

hi martin at the end of last year my neighbour informed me that we might be in the wrong banding we were in (B)having payed only 33500 in 95 for the property i thought it would be a cut and dry case surley there was no way my property was going to be worth more than 40k in 1991.the v.o.a. rplying letter in formed me that iwas out of the six month time limit there for unable to have my banding looked at . i challenged this with an appeal which i sent off once i had recieved it.but got another letter saying that i had sent it off too late and that they had recieved it a week after the 4 weeks ihad posted it.i then had to apply for an extension to the valuation tribunal for the president to approve which he did stating that i was misled by the v.o.a into how long i had to send it back not being able to down load it and having to reciece it by post put a delay on the appeal by a week. the president has now allowed the appeal of my appeal to be heard at the tribunal (are you keeping up )so back to the six month debat lukily for me my neighbour and an other property down the street had there banding changed fom B to A the neighbour opposite has lived at his property since 1993 and the other neighbouer has lived in their property since about 1965 proving that the six month time limit can be wavered my appeal date is at the end of the month and my neighbours have aggreeded to give me there letters confirming their new banding info. i might just ask the v.o.a how many propertys he has rebanded in the last 12 months who have lived there for more than six months and see wot hes says lol all the best jimmyb71

petes123

Local Council: Cheltenham Borough Council
Band before: C
Band after: B
Amount refunded: £1570
Annual saving: £124

I only became aware of this after a chance meeting with a neighbour down the road. He told me he and his neighbours had had their band reduced. I am in the same type of house, so I made one call to the Gloucester Valuation Office and 8 weeks later I had a letter saying my band had been reduced from C to B. I have just received a letter from the council stating that I will get a refund.

I am now telling all my neighbours! Like many people, I was worried my band could go up. But, after reading the info on this website, I saw that I had a good chance of a reduction and the band couldn't go up.

jenrav2

Local Council: East Hampshire District Council
Council Tax Band Before: F
Council Tax Band After: E
Amount refunded: £3,965
Annual saving going forward: £319

I was very surprised to have the refund backdated to 1995! After all that time we had overpaid by almost £4k, which we are delighted to have back!

miriam2273

Thank you moneyexpert - success!
After reading your website I applied to West Lothian Council for a council tax rebanding (Feb 12). After a smooth process my house was rebanded from a G to F.
Five years worth of overpayments = £1630 paid into my bank account last week
Renewed thanks!!! :-D

legobaby

Repayment from Rossendale Borough Council
Tax band was E
Tax band now is D
Amount refunded £5110
Annual reduction £344

Out of the blue I received a letter from a company called Randal & Vickers who presented themselves as "consumer champions"? I thought that was Martins mantle. They offered to persue a council tax refund
for me for 25% + vat on any money refunded. I vaguely recollected
hearing that you could apply yourself. Fortunately the first place I
looked was MONEYSAVING EXPERT and simply followed their advice.
The whole process has taken about 3 months but it has been well worth the wait. The only slight glitch was the Council seemed to think it would
be OK for them to retain the money as credit against my future council
tax bills. I quickly informed them that I would prefer the money to be
in my account than theirs.

RCFinbow

Local Council: Suffolk Coastal District Council
Council Tax Band Before: F
Council Tax Band After: E
Amount refunded: £4,289
Annual saving going forward: £340

Using information from the MSE article, I checked our banding and found we were the only one in our road in Band F, the rest being D or E. I also found the insured value of the house from 1995 was still below the Band F threshold.
Using this, I wrote to the Listing Office in early February asking for the apparent error in the banding to be checked. I had an acknowledgement within a couple of weeks and confirmation of rebanding to E in mid March. We then received confirmation of overpayment from the District Council and have recently had £4,289 refunded to our bank account (we pay by direct debit so the Council already had the details).
All this has happened without any further action by me after writing the initial letter.
Many thanks to MSE.:j