Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

[Deleted User]

thxultra73 wrote: »

Some advice please guys, 87 pages is too much to read I'm afraid.

No need to read this massive thread.
Read here;
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/council-tax-bands-change?_ga=1.237814146.340047350.1365283676

MonkeyBiscuit

Local Borough Council: West Berkshire
Council Tax Band Before: F
Council Tax Band After: E
Amount refunded: £863
Annual saving going forward:£360

The way West Berkshire worked out the refund was to add up all the refunds due for the last 4 years + my current year payments and deduct this from the new band annual amount due. i.e. they refunded me enough to bring my 16/17 council tax due to zero and refunded me the credit balance. so along with the refund above I also don't need to pay any further payments until the 17/18 installments begin.

SmashMouth

Local Borough Council: Rochford
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount refunded: £4,443.90
Annual saving going forward: £390

I've always known that my house was wrongly banded, but the "should I risk it" formula always said no; mainly because there are no comparable houses in my area. It's quite unusual, as it's a small 4-bed detached, but there are no others within 2 miles!

However, I bit the bullet and e-mailed the VOA a few months ago, pleading my case about the perceived value of my house in 1991 but there being nothing similar around. No surprise then that they wrote to me saying I hadn't presented enough evidence to allow them to re-evaluate.

So, I asked an associate of a work colleague, who happens to own an estate agent, to dig around for similar properties. Lo and behold, he found 4 properties, all larger than mine, detached, garages, but just over 2 miles.

I represented my case with these houses, saying they are as close as any around me, 2 were band D and 2 were band C. And YES! They wrote back saying they'd reevaluate my house!! 2 months later and I get a call from a chap at the VOA, saying he's on the case and asked a few details. How many rooms, etc.

I happened to check my band online 2 days ago and saw it had changed to a D and today got a letter from the council telling me it's been reduced and that I'll be getting a £4.4k refund with 2 weeks.

Happy is an understatement 🤗🤗

badmark

I have two properties in the same house one empty (long story) was band B, mine was band A I applied for a rebanding of the empty flat as it was down as a two bedroom. RESULT ... they rebanded empty flat to an A... and mine to a B....and backdated my increase for 6 years !!! they gave the reason for the fact that they got the 52a and 52b flat numbers the wrong way round.
Just a word of warning to all you MSEs:mad:

Tripletrouble123

Council : Bexley
Old Band: G
New Band: F
Back dated to : January 1993
Saving: £4,660
Cost saving going forward : c£300 p.a


Thanks to Martin and his team I followed every instruction on the website - yes I was refused at first but took two letters (attached MPs letter on the website) and WON - just before Christmas.

I was the only Band G in my postcode and the helpful revaluation calculator also put me in Band F - I have lived in the same property for 23 years.

I have never been satisfied that my Band was correct and caught Martin on TV mentioning there was a way to check - very easy, 2 letters and less than 3 months later the council paid into my account £4,660 WOW!!!

Footprint1975

Many thanks to MSE for prompting me to examine my CT Banding, and to make a claim!


County Council: Ynys Mon (Anglesey)
Tax band (since the house was bought in 2001 - for £29,000) : C
Tax band after claim: B
Amount of refund - ~£450 (Limited to a six-year refund period)
Amount saved per annum 75% (single occupancy) of the annual reduction of £152.
The basis of the claim was that the property's market value at the time of council tax valuation (April 2003) was extremely unlikely to have been over the Band A threshold of £44,000; and could not possibly have exceeded the Band B upper limit of £65,000.
This was obviously a "second gear valuation"; which actually valued the identical house next door at Band B, along with most other similar sized or larger properties in the street.
In light of the fact that this was such a glaring example of a failure to carry out the valuation properly, I feel aggrieved that a six year limitation has been applied? Has anyone any experience of challenging such?

a2f411d38bf0

Local Borough Council: Gateshead
Council Tax Band Before: B
Council Tax Band After: A
Amount refunded: £655
Annual saving going forward: £142

The change from band B to Band A was backdated to April 2013. The email I sent to the local valuation office was drafted after reading the guidance on Money Saving Expert.

In case it is of use to others, my email said:

Madam/Sir

I believe that the banding for my home may be wrong. The property is:

xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx

Reference xxxxxxxxx

It is currently listed as Band B. My belief that the band is incorrect is due to:
* It is a studio apartment with no separate kitchen, lounge or bedroom
* Nos xxx and xxx in the same block are already Band A

The property is worth less than £90,000 now (based on Zoopla estimates), and thus I believe it would have been well below £40,000 in 1991 (based on historical Nationwide house price data). I think it should be band A.

I moved into the new-build property in April 2013. Then, the bands were not all available on your website. Furthermore, I believe there is a duty to ensure all bands are correct and therefore am I writing to you with this information.

Please could you check my band?

Your letter in May 2013 (reference xxxxxxxx) mentioned a deadline of six months for making an appeal, but did not say that I could simply ask you to check my band, which I found out this week from:

Reference (link to URL on gov.uk website referenced in MSE)

Regards

I received a letter confirming receipt of my request within a week, and notification of the band alteration 6 weeks afterwards. There was no visit to my property that I was aware of.

Sinbad

I moved into my current property in September last year – a two bedroom chalet bungalow which is in a Band E.
There are 30 properties in the road with most being E but one or two are F.
To the best of my knowledge, we are the only two bedroom house in the road; the others are either three of four bed. This is based on walking along the street and Zoopla / Rightmove analysis.

I have gone through the process of challenging the banding and my challenge has been rejected.

The reasons I gave for requesting the reassessment were:
- We believed we are the only two bed in the road therefore smaller than everyone else.
- We purchased our home for 300,000 in September 2016. Using Nationwide’s House Price Calculator, it suggests that our place would have been worth 80,571 in 1991
- “Council tax bands at 1991 property value” state that 80,571 would have fallen into Band D

The reasons given for rejection were as follows:
In their opinion, the value of our property in April 1991 would “reasonably have been between 88k & 120K” which is reason for it remaining in Band E

They go on to say the following “sales evidence” helped them come up with their decision:


Approx. sale price - 98,000
Month / Year of sale - Sept 1992
Basic Property Details - 3 bed, 2 bath detached

Approx. sale price - 92,000
Month / Year of sale - May 1993
Basic Property Details - 3 bed, 1 bath detached

Approx. sale price - 78,000
Month / Year of sale - Jul 1994
Basic Property Details - 2 bed, 1 bath detached

Approx. sale price - 90,000
Month / Year of sale - April 1997
Basic Property Details - 3 bed, 2 bath detached

The above data has a caveat: Current legalisation precludes supplying comprehensive details of the sales) e.g. full address.

I have looked again at Zoopla and Rightmove and their data does not go back far enough for the above dates. I have come across Land Registry Open Data at http://landregistry.data.gov.uk/ and have managed to find the 1997 house there but nothing earlier. It look as though the data is limited to 20 years.

My question is: how can I find out the sale prices for the other properties, so that I can identify the 2 bed house above? I can then assess whether their findings are correct.

Many thanks.

lincroft1710

Sinbad - HPIs are inaccurate and too generalised. In my area by 1994 house prices were 20% or more below those of 1991 so £78K in mid 1994 would show around £97,500 as at Apr 1991. Also a 2 bed house won't always be smaller in size than a 3 bed. I had a 4 bed house which was smaller than my previous 3 bed

ddks

Hi Sinbad,

Have a look at Valuation Tribunal Service website, select 'Decisions & Lists' select the link. Then select 'Valuation Decisions'

Do a postcode search, just using the first part only -select 'find property' Look for similar cases & look at which properties they used to win these appeals. If they have named streets, look into whether they were sold from 'NEW' or infill plots.

New builds attract a premium that cannot be realised on the second hand market. Infill plots are treated differently to 'estate developments'

Check Planning and BuildingControl applications, look for any clues of when they were built...were there any extensions to the properties, that would have reflected in the price.

Do the properties sit on corner plot or a large plot, this would reflect on the sale price.

It's a starting point.

Good Luck