Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

neil72w

local council: epping forest
previous banding:D
new banding:C
refund :£0.00

I managed to get my grandmothers banding reduced from D to C,they went back to 1993 the rebanding papers only went back to 1995 so they missed 2 years out.they have said because she was on benefit she will not be entitled to any refund, she has all papers going right back and the payments for the years say 1995-1996 payment for the year say 351.00 and the band c for the same year payment is the same.
in otherwords the band D payment was the same as band C payments:mad:

CSW

West Lindsey District Council
Tax Band before F
Tax Band after E
Amount Refunded £2475.00

Tried unsuccessfully to get reduction but we were told we had no right to appeal as we had lived in the house for longer than 6 months. When new people bought our house we informed them we were sure we were overpaying as it was the highest band in the road. They sucessfully disputed it and we received 10 years of overpayments.

mazel_tov

Local Council - Lewes District Council
Tax Band Before - C
Tax Band After - B
Amount Refunded £640
Difference each month £12 less
Thank you so much for the advice. I checked and discovered that my neighbour who I am joined to, was in Band B but I was in C. Our properties are identical in that we don't have a loft conversion or any additional extensions.

The chap who rung me from the valuation office, was charm personified and actually rung back two hours later to confirm all would be sorted and the cheque would come from my local council. I was interested to learn that should anyone increase their property the tax band would not change until they sold the property and a new owner take over - thus the tax band would then be raised.

ptjaml

Local Borough Council: Havering (outer London)
Council Tax Band Before: F
Council Tax Band After: E
Amount refunded: £1952
Annual saving going forward: £333 (based on this year)

Challenged based on website article having discovered neighbors in lower band. Council have reviewed this years bill to zero saving me £217 a month and also refunding me £1952 in arrears. Unbelievable result! Will be going to see my son in New Zealand who wii be on a year's work placement from Bath Uni. Ker!!!!!!!gching! Happy Days!!!!!!

emgrif

Local Borough Council: Wiltshire
Council Tax Band Before: Band D
Council Tax Band After: Band C
Amount refunded: £1,100
Secured the lower band backdated to 1993.

Having read the forum I decided to check out if I was in the right band. In doing so I discovered that my elderly neighbour (94 years) was Band D and the rest of the terrace were Band C. With her permission I challenged this, requested the forms, completed them with her and sure enough she's been re-banded and received a refund backdated. She was over the moon (as was I), she's treating herself to....... a whole tank full of oil so she can have the heating on longer this year! I persuaded her to buy herself a nice cake too! I am hoping they don't realise that ours has a loft conversion and kitchen extension which hers doesn't and put our band up but hey ho if they do. Thanks for the advice, there is a very warm happy 94 year old in Wiltshire!

Paul_Blay

Local Borough Council: Milton Keynes
Council Tax Band Before: C
Council Tax Band After: B
Amount refunded: £640
:j

Like legobaby I received a letter from Randal & Vickers who wanted 25% of any refund they got for me. Glad that I decided to do it myself because the experience was both satisfying and enjoyable:

The evidence I provided to support my claim amounted to a 130-year history of my building, comparing it to much more valuable properties in the area which were in the same band as me (C). I combined modern satelite and street-view images with a turn-of-the-century photograph of horse-riders dismounting outside a pub, complete with hitching-rail, which used to be around the corner. My building is clearly identifiable in the edge of the photo.

Much more 'evidence' than was necessary of course; but I had fun doing my research and the lady from the valuation office who phoned me to say that my claim was successful admitted that she found it fascinating.

The amount refunded is five years worth at the discounted single occupancy rate. A similar amount was also refunded by direct debit to some previous occupants who moved out ten years ago, but the letter was sent to my address! So they'll be having a pleasant surprise when they next check their bank balance.:rotfl:

Thank you MK Council, and thank you Martin.
:beer:

vansuri1

Hi
I have moved in to a property fairly new and the owner had an extension of the kitchen. We have now been informed that our band has gone up because of this extension which i appealed few times since next door neighbours had lower band. The outcomes of the appeal was eventually turned downed. Am not too sure when you moved in to a new property does the council do a new valuation of the house? could someone help me please!!!!

lincroft1710

If a dwelling is extended then the CT band cannot be reviewed until it is sold, so only properties which have unasssessed extensions are subject to reassessment on sale.

Local councils do not assess properties for CT, this is done by the Valuation Office Agency (part of HMRC) in Eng and Wales, and the Assessor in Scotland.

Diddypiglet

Hi there
Can anyone tell me if they have had a refund from London Borough of Sutton council re wrong banding??
Thanks

tigermaul

Local Borough Council: Richmond-upon-Thames
Council Tax Band Before: G
Council Tax Band After: F
Amount refunded: £4541.20

Many many thanks for this which will pay for a luxury summer holiday. It's back to April 1994 because we had a boundary change then. We need to reclaim the remainder from Hounslow. I followed Martin's guide.

We had a valuation from mid 1992 when we bought the house and using the Nationwide index and extrapolating backwards this put us firmly in the middle of band F (interestingly using today's value of the house we would deffo be G, just showing that over the years the index is not that accurate).

I suspect we were originally put in G because we were end terrace. There's a mix of mostly Victorian/Edwardian terraces most with differing architectural style down our street so exact comparators difficult. Some are bigger and genuine G's. However our 'twin' house next door was F (but fully terraced), and houses each side both Fs.

But more importantly swathes of Victorian semis in central St Margarets are banded F and they are clearly more valuable than our house and always have been because they're nearer the station.

So in my evidence I sent Google streetmap images of relevant houses, plus copy of our 1992 valuation.

I am interested in anyone who's successfully claimed interest. I believe we have a case because a number of years ago our rebanding application was turned down due to more than six months rule - but if they had a legal obligation to get the banding right, and they failed to investigate it properly (the evidence in our case is pretty watertight) then in my view they acted improperly at that time.

But both the council and valuation office (Wimbledon) have been really helpful and courteous this time round - emailing and phoning me with updates and they are contacting the other borough to chase up the 'missing year'.

Thanks once again!!