Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

dr_foster

Local Borough Council:- Elmbridge
Council tax Band before: Band G
Council tax Band after: Band F
Amount refunded £3,800
Money saved going forward £300 per month
Thank you moneysavingexpert. Followed the instructions to the letter. We were only house surrounded by neighbours in the higher tax band. Had to provide evidence from rightmove etc of similar sized properties in lower bands and they have refunded for 10 years.

PeterA

Local Borough Council: Braintree District
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount refunded: £2,395.48
Annual saving going forward: £365

Thankyou so much for sharing this money saving tip. After checking what band my neighbours were in I discovered there were identical properties in Band D instead of my Band E. Following the simple advice on here to estimate the 1991 sale price I got in touch with the local Valuation Office Agency & within a couple of weeks my band was reduced to Band D & I received a refund of almost £2,400 backdated to 2010 when I first moved in. Great advice & very easy claim process.

cuttle

Leicester city council from band b to band a refund of £3134.14 plus £240 a year cheaper been in the wrong band for 25 years it was so easy just a quick phone call and six weeks later it was sorted so thank you Martin also I got £1500 back for reclaiming bank charges :j:j

Toadman

Local Borough Council: Broadland Norfolk
Council Tax Band Before: F
Council Tax Band After: E
Amount refunded: £1650
Annual saving : approx £350

Thank you money saving expert, I followed your guide and found the process surprisingly easy.
I spoke to the agency as my postcode was entered incorrectly but they were very helpful and encouraged me to research other similar properties within 10 miles who also have a lower band.
Easily done in zoopla, and about an hours work.
Completed the process in about 4 weeks, refund from the council arrived a few days after!!
Highly recommend doing this, it sounds a lot harder than it actually is.

Condurrowalps

Cornwall Council
Band B
Band A
Still waiting for refund for last 19 years
Will be saving £200 a year

Ben_Barker

Council: Brighton and Hove
Band before: C
Band after: A
Refund: 3815.37

After seeing Martin talking about this on the telly and doing the checks on the website, I decided to try talking to the VOA. The first person I spoke to said that prices paid were irrelevant and I needed to find a lower-banded property with the same square footage. I was doing this from miles away so could not measure my own place or others' and went looking for floor plans on estate agents' websites. I managed to find one and rang the VOA again. Initially, I spoke to a jobsworth who could have been from a sitcom. Eventually he got bored and passed me on to someone who seemed more interested in doing his job. He said he would look into it and about a month later rang to tell me he agreed with my assessment and was changing the band. He also told me he was telling the council but not to expect immediate results as they are busy at this time of year. I was therefore very pleasantly surprised when the refund came by direct debit less than three weeks later with no prompting. Proof that it is worth persisting in the face of bureaucracy.

spj555

Council: Stockport
Old Band : E
New Band: D
Refund £4938

Having seen the article on TV a few weeks back, I thought I might as well look into it.
On checking the Gov/local council websites I found that my property was one of only 6 on the road in a higher band than all the others.

I went on to get some history on house sales on the road going back as far as 1996 which clearly identified I could have a case to get the band changed.
I sent an email to the Valuations Office outlining my case, which was responded to fairly quickly saying that they'd look into it.A couple of weeks later, they confirmed that they had reviewed and agreed the band would be changed.
16 years worth of overpayments backdated and a new reduced Council Tax bill!!
Well worth the time spent doing the research.

Had I not switched on the TV that night, I'd have been non the wiser. Thanks Martin & team!!

Rachellawman

Local Borough Council: Chorley council
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount refunded: £1112.76
Annual saving going forward: over £400 a year!

After watching Martin on television I decided to look into our council tax, after moving in to our new build property in 2014 and just presuming everything was correct. It was only when checking on the VOA website that we found several of our neighbours in bigger more expensive properties than ours were on a lower council tax band and also the 2 other identical houses to ours on the estate were on tax band D whilst we were on tax band E. So fast forward several back and forth emails with the relevant evidence to prove we were on the wrong council tax band and hooray we won.... documents sent yesterday confirming council tax band lowered and I have just rang the council who advised me we had a credit of £1112.76 and they were waiting to hear from us to see what we wanted to do with the money!! Erm in to my bank account please.... thanks Martin!

Colin_H_Poole

Local Authority: Borough of Poole Council

Original Council Tax Band: F

Revised Council Tax Band: E

Amount refunded: £5,578.67 plus recalculated tax for 2018/19 £477.09 lower - total 6,055.76

After watching Martin Lewis explain how to check if too much Council Tax is being paid due to an incorrect banding and researching this on the Martin Lewis website we checked valuations and could see that our home in Poole appeared to be banded too highly compared with similar properties. We satisfied ourselves that this was not due to those other properties being too lowly banded. We also used house price index information that suggested that the valuation should have been at Band E rather than Band F, The price we had paid for our house in 1997 was consistent with this assessment.

It therefore seemed we had been paying too much Council Tax since 1997 and realised this involved payments more than others living in similar properties of around £6,000. This seemed unfair.

We appealed to the Valuation Office. They replied saying they would not accept an appeal as this had not been registered within 6 months, but would carry out a review. We discussed this with the Valuation Office who were helpful and viewed this as a technical issue.

They gave an opportunity to appeal the decision not to allow an appeal. We were uneasy that if the review was unreasonably refused there would be no appeal opportunity and were planning to register an appeal. The Valuation Office were however very efficient and before the date an appeal needed to be registered (against the decision not to allow an appeal), they confirmed a decision to change the banding from a Band F to a Band E. The Valuation Office dealt with this matter very efficiently and we wrote and thanked them for this.

Similarly within days the Local Council, The Borough of Poole recast the 2018/19 Council Tax and this involved the Council Tax bill reducing by £477.09 this year.

Also without asking them, Borough of Poole Council very quickly within one to two weeks recalculated over paid Council tax back to 2017 and sent a bank credit of £5,578.67. This meant the saving up to and including this financial year was £6,055.76, with annual future lower costs of around £477.09 a year expected annually in the future.

We wrote to Andrew Flockhart the Chief Executive of Borough of Poole and thanked him for the efficient, quick and fair way the Council responded to the revised assessment without them receiving direct from us any claim and without any need to chase them. We felt this was impressive. We appreciate the services of the Borough of Poole that we regard as a well run Council.

So:

Thank you Martin Lewis for highlighting and explaining how to get the Council Tax re-banded when this appears wrong and highlighting potential pitfalls.

Thank you to the Southampton Valuation Office for the quick, fair and efficient way they dealt with this matter.

Thank you to the Borough of Poole Council Tax service for applying fair taxation principles and responding so quickly and efficiently to the changed banding notification they received from the Valuation office and for applying this retrospectively to 1997 without our needing to notify or chase them directly.

We hope information on our experience helps others who find their Council Tax Banding is unfair when compared to other similar properties.

pokchop

Local Authority Cheshire East

Original Council Tax Band E

Revised Council Tax Band D

Amount Refunded £6334.44
Annual Saving Approx £312

Absolutely made up with this,so easy following the instructions on MSE. Took about 3 months from beginning to end.Well worth it.
Our house was put into Band E in 1993 as was My neighbours which is an identical house,I noticed that another identical house further down our road was in Band D and after checking on the valuations for 1993 realised that we had been paying too much. The Valuation Office Agency agreed with Me.
The total amount was paid in to My Bank this week.:T:T:T