Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

The_Snigs

8th July 2012.
We have just been notified that we have will have our band amended from Band F to band E. We received an e-mail this week from the valuation officer. This is good news , we have struggled to pay our Council tax for many years. Now that the band has been reviewed we will request a refund. We have lived in our house since 1996.
Watch out for a re-post on this site to see the outcome of our request for a refund.

Orange_wasps

I followed Martin's procedure and contacted my local valuation office, after checking adjacent properties. After four weeks I have been notifed that my Council Tax Band will be reduced from E to D and overpayments will be refunded. Thank you to Martin and your team.:j

Skippydot

Dundee City Council
Band B to Band A

I done the very quick check online and found that I am the only house in a group of 14 that is on Band B. I filled in the online proposal for my local joint valuation board on the Thursday last week, I received an email reply on the Monday to contact them to arrange a meeting, had a 10 minute meeting today and was advised that I had a case and it would be very straight forward and also back dated to when I moved to the property.

Looking forward to a refund for 13 years worth of overpayments and ongoing reduction of £190 per year.

Now to research PPI not much hope though as I claimed on some a few years ago.

Thank you MSE and all you forumites

Keep up the good work

lovelylady1

IsabelT wrote: »

I live on a long un adopted road in SE Kent with mostly 4 bed detached house only a few semis, all the houses are different. We moved there in 1997 and paid £128,500 the property is a 4bed detached at the time of us buying I queried the band and someone came out to look and I believe the letter I received from the VOA stated as it need to updating once done they believed the house was in the right band.
Stupidly I did not take it any further.

I was looking on this site to find this forum and I have checked my Council Tax and the 4 bed detached around me are in Band F where I am a G!
I have gone through the VOA site to appeal stating that the price I paid in 1997 would make this house in an F band and also stated neighbouring properties all four bed detached in band F.

I have got a reply basically stating that they do not agree with a different valuation..and from reading some postings on the site it would seem that it a set type of letter.

1. The problem is that as there is no other property that’s the same as ours in the road, lots of four beds detached! Some bigger, some with smaller gardens, but all different.

2. I have looked on a site for its value in 1991 for the south east England it states £117,000 but when I have quoted that in my letter to VOA it has stated that “House price sites cover a wide geographical area so this is not accurate”

I have looked at the house prices sites for when I brought mine in 1997, to tried to do a comparison and houses that where brought for more money than mine in 1997 where in a band F (my way of thinking if they cost more they are bigger) some have 6 bedsrooms! I have got a list of them around me all lower banding than mine, but I feel that if I tell the VOA about these all they will say is that they where smaller properties and had extensions or they have appealed and had the banding lowered.

Also they are satisfied that mine is right and they will consider the banding of the others properties need to be increased..if that's the case nearly the whole road will have to be reviewed!

I have even gone to a local Estate agents to see if they have any old documentation on house sales in 1991, unfortunately not!

Can anyone give advice on what to do now? As I have left it once and don’t ant to do it again but am nervous of going to appeal.
I want to put as much evidence forward as possible but I restricted as I cannot get prices for 1991..what else can I do?

Hi, I had the same thing. I applied back in 2006 and got a letter back saying no my band was correct. I was an E band. not knowing much about it back then, i just assumed that they must be right!!! then my friend got a letter from the VOA reducing her band in Janaury of this year. Her house is bigger than mine but a mid terrace mine is a semi but I called them in March 2012 and asked them to review it again they came back and said no. I wasnt giving up so started doing some research. I had already checked my neighbours banding and they were all Band D! i gave a list of properties in my road and area that were bigger and all a band D. I recieved another letter saying that she believed she had carried out a thorough search and investigation and I was in the correct band and all the others must be in the wrong back and may need to be moved up a band!! and she would not be reviewing it again! So I called back up and someone else then took over the case. I gave list upon list of properties, looking on planning to see if they had any work done. I also got the head of the valuations office involved. I asked for someone to come and measure my house and they sent two women out. Who were really rude and to be honest I could have meanured better than them! I asked if they were surveyors and they both said yes but when I phoned the office and asked if they were, the lady told me no!! I knew I was in the right and wasnt giving up. After a lot of digging around I came across two houses that were bigger than mine and sold last year for over £100,000 more than mine would have done. The valuations office had actually changed their band from and E to a D. I emailed them plans of the properties and a sketch of my house. I literally phoned everyday and then finally I got an answer nearly two weeks ago that they were reducing it to a band D!!! Victory!!! :T I am now waiting for the council to refund which I think maybe a hard slog!! The banding has been changed on the Direct Gov website but they will not do anything about it until they have had confirmation from the VOA who after speaking to them today have said that they have informed the council tax office...so i shall be ringing in the morning AGAIN!!! Good luck with it all and dont give up..most of them dont even know the area that you live in..it took me four months to get a result but it was worth it..now to get the refund..I have been living here for nearly 10 years..so a lovely refund..they need to get people to do the job properly then the council would not need to pay out all this money!! dont give up:D

enfieldresident

Local Borough Council: Enfield
Band Before: F
Council Tax Band After: E
Returns: Zero

Thanks to reading this site, inspired me to challenge the banding on my property.

Was not expecting to win, but I have, now lets wait and see
when the neighbours find out......

Cheers
:beer:

Vamos

Cornwall Council. Lowered to Band D from E.

Found out what the house was sold for in 1987, what is would have been worth approx in 1991. In my post code of 60 houses only three including me were in Band E. I have just bought the house it cost below the average price paid in the post code over the last five years.

Will save about 400 a year.

Many thanks Moneysavingexpert.

K_Hickey

Local Borough Council: Croydon
Cuncil tax band before:F
Council tax rebanded to E
Annual saving approx. £320 p.a.
Thank you! I secured a rebanding on a new build infill property backdated to initial occupancy (2 years) based on comparisons with neighbouring properties on tax band, size, layout and rental values (the rebanded property had been assessed for rental value prior to purchase and the council tax banding for similar rental value homes was submitted as evidence of justification for re-banding.
There is so much information available on line. The resources referred to on this website were invaluable and helped me identify norms in banding which i could refer to when citing data on neighbouring properties.

Suesec

Local Borough Council; Crawley
Council Tax band; C
Rebanded to; B
After reading Martin's advice, contacted the Valuation Office and within 8 weeks start to finish have received notification that I have been rebanded and the Council have issued a breakdown of the rebate I am to receive with a payment date. Great news; well done Martin and his team for bringing us all your tips

S.C_3

LBC : Calderdale
Was band E
Now band D
Refunded £1260! :-)

I used a company called DSA Consultancy to deal with my rebanding. They sent a letter to us out of the blue saying we could be owed some money but we ignored it thinking it was a scam. Eventually they knocked on our door and to be honest I'm glad they did.

I simply didn't have the time to deal with this myself plus when I called the Council they said that once you live in your home for more than 6 months you cannot challenge the banding.

Anyway DSA were fantastic and took care of it all on a sort of no win no fee thing so we didn't pay a penny upfront. Yes, they took a commission after the rebanding was done but to be honest if they had never approached us I would never of known our house was in the wrong band in the first place so I thought it was worth it. All in all it took about 2 months to get our cheque and we have just booked a holiday with it.

I know some people who have tried to do this themselves and ended up not getting the result they had hoped for so i was happy to let some experts deal with it and in my opinion it was a great service.

I know there are some other companies who are poor or charge rip off up front fee's but we thought DSA were excellent. At the end of the day they got us £1260!!!

S.C
Calderdale.

Leodogger

I decided to appeal my council tax banding in my housing association bungalow, despite advice from people both on here who apparently have worked for the valuation offices and by the housing association manager who said it would be a waste of time.

I submitted my letter pointing out that our properties (OAP bungalows) were banded the same as houses in the road adjoining us, these houses were semis with 3 beds, garages and gardens and two living rooms. I pointed out that we live in a terraced bungalow, 2 beds, community parking and gardens and one living room !

I have received a letter advising me that our band has been reduced from C to B and what is even better, the people on our development (21 bungalows in all !) have all been advised that theirs have been dropped too and this is based on the valuation dating back to April 1991 when the valuations were carried out and on prices of property at the time. People on here have been paying band C for 18 years since they moved into these brand new properties and may now possibly get a refund of overpayments.

Is that a success or what !!! I am so pleased for these people who are pensioners and many struggle to survive on a low income, so I am happy not only for myself but for them.

It just goes to prove though that it pays to appeal if you feel your tax band is unjust when compared to larger properties in the same immediate area !:T

I have been congratulated by the residents for doing them a good turn. I am sure I will be mentioned in despatches when I shuttle off this mortgal coil :rotfl: