Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

delph_2

Thanks for your answer but why I may not get the band reduced?

lincroft1710

Because there may be relevant sales evidence to support your current band.

delph_2

ok thank you, but the sale price of the flat is on the internet and I think if I ask my landlord we provide paper which indicates the price of sale. Do you think is good?
sorry for my english

lincroft1710

The Valuation Office Agency, who are the government department which deals with Council Tax bands, have details of all property sales in England. So if your or a neighbouring flat sold in 1991 (the year that is used for CT valuations) they will have details.

lizzzd

Council: Bristol
Band before: C
Band after : B
Saving: not sure yet
Other info: live in a city centre flat, other one beds in my building are band B.

Sent a letter to Bristol valuations office, got a letter saying they would respond in two months, then received an email approx 2 weeks later saying I had been re-banded. Now just awaiting refund!

Thanks MSE!

StephenM_2

Local Council: Cheltenham
Previous Band: C
Now in Band: B
Refund: £202.76

The weird thing about this was that this refund was completely unexpected and unsolicited, and occurred 16 years after I'd sold the house and moved to a different local authority. I just got a letter one day saying I was due a refund and it would be paid into the bank account I'd used all those years ago to pay my council tax from. Fortunately it was still my account.

They must have kept my records on file all these years,and then the current occupant must have appealed and they backdated the refund to when I was living there.

By the way, we got the house we moved to (a new build) re-banded from E to D straight after we moved in.

Marticat

MSE_Archna wrote: »

Local Borough Council: Arun DC West Sussex
Council Tax Band Before: F
Council Tax Band After: E
Amount refunded: dont know yet
Annual saving going forward: £300 per year


Initially I received a letter from one of these agencies telling me my neighbours were lower than me CT wise. They volunteered to submit my application and wanted to take a large slice of any refund forthcoming. I didnt use them.

instead I read the the moneysavingexpert advice, followed their steps and then I called the local council. They took details of my situation and they advised the Valuations Office directly. Two months later i received a letter advising the change effective 1993. No fee charged. Well done moneysavingexpert.

Easy Easy Easy :j:j:j

neppyjane

Local Borough Council: Cambridgeshire
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount refunded: £2900
Annual saving going forward:£300

This was extremely welcome, as I've just been made redundant - saw this article while looking through the site for ways to budget/reclaim money, and thought I'd just give it a go.
Was astonished to see that absolutely every other (identical) house in our road was a D....except us, who were, inexplicably, banded at E. As we've been here for about 11 years, I thought it was definitely worth a go.
Pleasantly surprised by the swift turnaround of the whole process - no more than a month between my initially contacting the council, and receiving our refund letter.

:money: Can't thank MSE enough for its laudable efforts to keep us all informed, updated and hopefully in the black rather than the red.
Am now also getting money in by renting out a space on the Park at My House site.

dingledog

South Hams Council
Code D to Code C
£1,000 refund
Not sure of saving each month as have not yet received new bill.

This is such a good thing to do, I sent one quick email having established that my neighbours were in Band C and my house was in D even though they are similar terraced cottages. I said I thought this unfair and heard nothing. I assumed my email had been filed in the bin, particularly as there is a large notice on the council website saying that there are strict criteria as to redesignating codes. I didn't meet any of these but still had a go and they have just written to say they are refunding overcharged tax from 1993 of just over £1,000 (even though I only bought the house in 2004). Very happy so thank you MSE.:T

angie062010

Success at last! 4.5 years of hard work rewarded with the whole street to be re-banded!

I moved into my property 8.5 yrs ago. I discovered in spring 2008 that 2 properties on opposite side of avenue were band d and band c with myself and others in band e, all properties were built by the same builder to the same spec at the same time, but bizarrely had ORIGINALLY been banded in such extremely different bands.
I was so outraged by the excuses as to why I even contacted the local paper who ran a story, as the Valuation Office had told me that the band c property was not a 4 bed detached as mine is but a 2 bed semi! It was clearly a 4 bed detached and had been since original build. I even emailed photographs. There are no 2 bed semis on the street ironically! They refused to investigate.
What with personal issues I left the matter but sporadically contacted them over the next 2 years to be told all sorts of curious stories regarding the properties and odd banding. Eventually in November 2012 after being told yet again that my property was larger than the others (it is not) and that a double detached garage that was connected to my property since the build did not exist, I entered a complaint. My complaint was investigated, and the officer stated that she had ordered the street to be looked at physically by a local office. Finally in Feb an officer came to me and was flabbergasted that the properties had been banded originally in 3 separate bands. To cut a long story short, finally I received a call yesterday that my property would be dropped to a D,as in line with another 4 bed detached, and the whole street would be rebanded as it was now confirmed that clearly 3 bed and 4 bed properties were banded incorrectly originally.
So, 4 beds will be D, AND 3 beds C and refunds would date back to 93/94? . Many neighbours have been here since the houses were built.
They have admitted that all 4 beds should of been re banded back in 94 when a 4 bed had the band reduced to a D and apologised for this.
Its been a long slog, and I did almost give up but the taste of victory is wonderful! So anybody who is struggling with this , keep hacking away, check all the facts, don't be satisfied with flimsy excuses if you believe you have a fair argument fight on!

This forum helped me enormously, I never posted but just reading other peoples stories was a real boost.
Thankyou Martin Lewis for giving ordinary people like me the information to obtain fair and just banding!:money: