Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

MrsB124

@lincroft1710
i have received an email today, which says we were the subject of the VT 😱 we had no idea????
my husband challenged the band in the first 3 months of moving in, but never heard back so presumed we were unsuccessful. We have major issues with post here as Drive & Road are next to each other....... so much so that our new kitchen was delivered to Drive and no one told us 🤷‍♀️

Anyway, after reading the addresses they used to compared you ours, they were ALL bungalows locates between 0.2 - 1.1 miles away. My concern is that none were Dormer bungalows like ours - and there are at least 15 dormers within 300 yards of ours 🤔

lincroft1710

MrsB124 said:

@lincroft1710
i have received an email today, which says we were the subject of the VT 😱 we had no idea????
my husband challenged the band in the first 3 months of moving in, but never heard back so presumed we were unsuccessful. We have major issues with post here as Drive & Road are next to each other....... so much so that our new kitchen was delivered to Drive and no one told us 🤷‍♀️

Anyway, after reading the addresses they used to compared you ours, they were ALL bungalows locates between 0.2 - 1.1 miles away. My concern is that none were Dormer bungalows like ours - and there are at least 15 dormers within 300 yards of ours 🤔

It is extremely doubtful that the VOA will do anything, as they will just say the matter was determined by the VT and that is the end of it. The only way you would get anywhere is if you could persuade them that their evidence was not truly comparable and I honestly don't know how you could do that.

MrsB124

lincroft1710 said:

MrsB124 said:

@lincroft1710
i have received an email today, which says we were the subject of the VT 😱 we had no idea????
my husband challenged the band in the first 3 months of moving in, but never heard back so presumed we were unsuccessful. We have major issues with post here as Drive & Road are next to each other....... so much so that our new kitchen was delivered to Drive and no one told us 🤷‍♀️

Anyway, after reading the addresses they used to compared you ours, they were ALL bungalows locates between 0.2 - 1.1 miles away. My concern is that none were Dormer bungalows like ours - and there are at least 15 dormers within 300 yards of ours 🤔

It is extremely doubtful that the VOA will do anything, as they will just say the matter was determined by the VT and that is the end of it. The only way you would get anywhere is if you could persuade them that their evidence was not truly comparable and I honestly don't know how you could do that.

Thank you @lincroft I’m presuming the price of a bungalow is far greater than that of a Dormer bungalow (they are around here for some reason 🤷‍♀️). 2 bedroom bungalow Currently on sale on Drive is £750k 😱 same sort of m2 as ours, but as it’s single storey they always go for loads more 🤷‍♀️

The photos I have taken of their comparison houses (bungalows) look nothing like ours 🤷‍♀️ The ones 300 yards away are almost identical, so who knows, but thank you very much for all of your advice, it is very much appreciated 🙏👍

MicD91

Cbay27 said:

 I live in Cornwall and have just been successfully rebanded from B to A resulting in no council tax to pay til next financial year and a £230 rebate. Moved into the property two and a half years ago and was surprised at the band but didn’t take it anywhere, after seeing that neighbours with similar properties were band A I followed the advice on here in August and sent an email with examples of similar properties and found out today they have rebanded us to an A. So glad I took the time to do it. Thanks for all the help! 

Hey, did you hear anything back before the confirmation? I appealed towards the end of August and not heard anything yet. Did they email you? Thanks xx

lincroft1710

MrsB124 said:

lincroft1710 said:

MrsB124 said:

@lincroft1710
i have received an email today, which says we were the subject of the VT 😱 we had no idea????
my husband challenged the band in the first 3 months of moving in, but never heard back so presumed we were unsuccessful. We have major issues with post here as Drive & Road are next to each other....... so much so that our new kitchen was delivered to Drive and no one told us 🤷‍♀️

Anyway, after reading the addresses they used to compared you ours, they were ALL bungalows locates between 0.2 - 1.1 miles away. My concern is that none were Dormer bungalows like ours - and there are at least 15 dormers within 300 yards of ours 🤔

It is extremely doubtful that the VOA will do anything, as they will just say the matter was determined by the VT and that is the end of it. The only way you would get anywhere is if you could persuade them that their evidence was not truly comparable and I honestly don't know how you could do that.

Thank you @lincroft I’m presuming the price of a bungalow is far greater than that of a Dormer bungalow (they are around here for some reason 🤷‍♀️). 2 bedroom bungalow Currently on sale on Drive is £750k 😱 same sort of m2 as ours, but as it’s single storey they always go for loads more 🤷‍♀️

The photos I have taken of their comparison houses (bungalows) look nothing like ours 🤷‍♀️ The ones 300 yards away are almost identical, so who knows, but thank you very much for all of your advice, it is very much appreciated 🙏👍

I think the only thing you can do is show them the differences between your comparables and theirs and just keep hammering at them until one of you gives in!

MrsB124

@lincroft1710 We have now been advised that we are being rebanded from an F to an E 👍

Thank  you very much for all of your help, it is very much appreciated 🙏

lincroft1710

MrsB124 said:

@lincroft1710 We have now been advised that we are being rebanded from an F to an E 👍

Thank  you very much for all of your help, it is very much appreciated 🙏

Good news! Well done! 

pathilley

Claimed back to 1993 house was re-banded  £6000 refunded. (Scotland)
Result Martin

chunkylover53

My not so success story trying to appeal my banding ... gave examples of two comparable neighbours (one attached to me) highlighting their lower band. I failed my appeal, but it is fairer now as they rebanded the two examples I gave to my higher band.  It was a while ago, hopefully they didn’t ever find out it was most likely my doing they are now paying more, at least my immediate neighbour hasn’t mention anything. 

lincroft1710

chunkylover53 said:

My not so success story trying to appeal my banding ... gave examples of two comparable neighbours (one attached to me) highlighting their lower band. I failed my appeal, but it is fairer now as they rebanded the two examples I gave to my higher band.  It was a while ago, hopefully they didn’t ever find out it was most likely my doing they are now paying more, at least my immediate neighbour hasn’t mention anything. 

It could have been worse!!

I'm ex VOA and some 20 yrs ago had someone complain that their home was 2 bands higher than their neighbours' homes. Unfortunately their band was correct and so the neighbours were increased by 2 bands!