Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

Rick8431

Many thanks MSE, I followed the advice to the letter. Did my research carefully using local council website to find out which houses were in which tax bands. I walked round the street to make sure the houses in lower bands were at least the same size as mine. I noted which ones were the same size in lower bands and which ones were bigger in the same band.
I quoted all this information in my application. After about 6 weeks I received a letter re-banding my house from E to D and a few days later received a refund of £3500.

Its definitely worth doing your research and quaoting all the information

Bri1

I had mine reduced by a band, then a couple of years later when the council had central Govt budget cuts they miraculously decided that they had made a mistake & put it back up, was told no right of further appeal, nice, at least I kept the original refund & got a couple of years in the lower band, thieving gits!

Poll_W

Stafford Council
Band E before
Band D after
Amount of refund £4547.00
Annual saving from now £320

Our daughter had seen the MSE programme about council tax and told us to check if ours was correct. When we checked we found that several houses in our street were a band lower than us so we decided to make a claim . The whole process was so easy. All it took to get the ball rolling was a phone call to our local Valuation Office. They took our details and said we would hear within 8 weeks. We had a letter after 8 weeks to say we had been re-banded to D with effect from 1993 as we have lived in our home since before that date. We have just heard from our local council to say that we will receive a refund of £4500.00. We are delighted.

pennypinchUK

Just received telephone conversation from North Devon Council of a £3200 refund, after they accepted my house should be moved from Band E to Band D. The claim goes right back to 1993.

I followed the MSE guidance, looked on the Valuation Office banding web-site and wrote a 1 page letter to the council. 2 weeks later I received an acknowledgement and about 3 weeks after that they wrote to confirm the change. Payment will arrive in about 3 weeks.

Thanks MSE, just brilliant. If it hadn't been for your site I wouldn't have known about this, or how to go about it.

DannyK_2

Just like to say that I followed the advice about querying Council Tax banding. I simply emailed the web address given, because I noticed that the semi that is attached to us is Band B, and we are Band c. Within about four weeks I have been informed that I have been rebanded to B!!!!!! Backdated to January 1993!!!! South Derbyshire District Council have informed me that I will be refunded £1753!!!! I am a happy bunny, and thanks MSE!

desrover

Liverpool Council
Band C before
Band B after
Amount of refund over £1000
Annual saving from now £172

Some houses on my street are still in the wrong higher band and its easy to get this changed by following the advice on here.

jenny_f

Having just been looking at trying to get our house rebanded but just not sure on the risk.

Looking at the Valuations Agency, all the houses on our side of the road are the same band as us (C), houses opposite us on the other side of the road are also C but a lot (about half) of the road are B. This seems to think it's not worth it.

However, looking at the Nationwide valuation thing - we put in the price of the house when we bought it in November 2011 and it shows that we should be in band B. How accurate is the Nationwide thing?

Are there any other ways we can check the value from 1991?

Just don't want to risk being put up to band D!

lincroft1710

Nationwide House Price Index can easily be inaccurate by 10%. Unlikely your band would be increased to D, possibility the Band B houses could be increased to C. Are the Bs exactly the same house as the Cs?

1991 house prices are not in the public domain. Check bands of similar houses in other streets and see if you can find archived local newspaper property ads which would give you an idea of asking prices.

jenny_f

We have managed to find out how much the previous owner bought the house for and when.We have put this into Nationwide and that is also showing band B. It's just that the houses either side of us are a C, but maybe they've not challenged it either?!

lincroft1710

What year and what price did previous owner buy and what figure does NW show for both this sale and your purchase?