Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

A_Knighton

scally0407 wrote: »

:T
Local Borough Council: Horsham, West Sussex
Council Tax Band Before: F
Council Tax Band After: E
Amount refunded: just over £2000

How easy was this, one phone call to a very pleasant lady at my area VOA who took my details and then 7 weeks later a letter arrives stating the band had been changed !

After following the guidelines on the website I prepared my case and prepared to make my claim and get ready to respond to the expected rejections (having been in my home for 7 years I was well outside of the six months review period). I found just one neighbour with a house the same as mine that was in band E, the rest were in band F, I used the calculator to work out that the price I paid for the house in 2000, calculated as a band E in 1991 and the price paid by the previous occupants in 1996 also supported this, I discovered that there were houses bigger than mine in the same band but the best bit of all....when I gave my details to the very nice lady, the VOA had my property down as a four bed detached when it should of been down as a three bed....

... the change of band has been sent to the council and I am now waiting on my revised 2007 council tax bill which I have been advised will not require paying due to the rather large credit amount on my account - not quite cash in my hand and of course no interest paid but at least I'm getting it back.:j

You shouldn't just accept the cash you're due back being offset against your 2007/08 bill - we were offered the same but refused and asked for the full refund and a revised council tax bill for 2007/08.

mol82

hello,
i would like to challenge my council tax and after reading other people's feed back i have a lot of hope. can someone please tell me whats VOA stands for and how can i get hold of them? lastly, how can i go about challenging these money suckers. please help!!!! Thanks

quirkes

Borough: Kingston Upon Thames
Previous Band: G New Band: F
2007/8 Charge was £2536.67, now £2198.45
Refund from July 2001 (when I moved into this property) to date = £1,573.23.
This amount has been deducted from current bill and my monthly DD reduced from £254 per month to £42 until April 2008.
Obtaining this refund was very simple. I applied on line using Martin's double whammy: firstly. I discovered that only 2 houses on my side of the street were G, the rest were F (all the houses are very similar); secondly, my neighbour 2 doors away sold their house in November and I used the calculator to establish that the house would have been in band F in 1993. Initially, I received a reply that my claim was invalid as we had lived in the house for more than 6 months, but that as I was unhappy with the banding, it would be reassessed. This was done automatically and within 6 weeks I had been notified that my appeal had succeeded and today I received notification of the refund. A good return for a few minutes on the computer and particularly satisfying as Kingston has one of the highest council taxes in the country.

focus_girl

Council: Halton Borough Council
Band before: E
Band after: D
Amount of refund: Don't know yet but the alteration has been backdated to 1st April 1993!

I suspected for a while that we were in the wrong band but it was not until I followed the advice on the site that I could do much about it. We live in a 2 bed bungalow with 1 living room and no garage. There are no direct comparisons as our house is a 'one off'. When I checked some of the other houses in the road I found out they were in the same band (E) but these houses each have 4-6 bedrooms, a huge double garage and at least 2 living rooms! I contacted the valuation office and asked for a re-valuation, the officer paid us a visit 4 weeks later and viewed the house. Today I have received a letter confiming that our house is now in a band D saving us £280 in this tax year alone. Reason for the change: an error in the original valuation. The council tax people have confimed that they will have to refund the over payments going back to April 1993 and will send us a revised bill for 2007-2008....

Thank you moneysavingexpert for providing the information, it has been well worth the effort of doing the checks etc to get this result. :j

upton66

Council: Slough
Band before: G
Band after: F
Amount of refund: £2000

Great success without going to appeal.
Rebanding back to 1993 and refund of council tax back to August 1995 when moved into house.

Only hiccup was having to chase VOA to send advise of re-banding to council.
Council then insisted on putting my account in credit so that I would pay no council tax for about twelve months.
However persuaded them to refund overpayment as cheque and continue paying direct debit at new lower rate.

Thanks to Martin for the tools required.

No doubt council tax will go up next year to make up for all the refunds, but at least I have a windfall that'll go towards something around the home or family.

Gatso_Burner

Wigan Council
Was a band E
Regraded to D

I thank you, ha ha ha, refund £1475.00. Always thought E was high for our house but assumed the appeal would be a legal minefield, after the program, rang the VOA, received a call from them within 2 weeks stating they'd call and look, 'they came, they conquered', i pay less and got some cash.

ROUSEY_3

Local Borough Council: BLACKBURN WITH DARWEN
Council Tax Band Before:B
Council Tax Band After:A
Amount refunded:£1150+ :beer: :j
Annual saving going forward:

After being referred to your great site by a colleague I decided again to try my luck at reclaiming monies owed that I initially challenged 7 years ago to no avail !

In the late 90's (before MSE came along), I asked my local council why I was banded one level higher than both my immediate neighbours in a row of Victorian Terraced houses.

Their response was along the lines of "Sorry we are not interested....go away".

Anyway as time passed on the banding was forgotten about until I read Martin's article. I filled out the standard form and within 72 hours a reply email was received accepting receipt, so far so good.

A week or so later, the standard reply from the VOA declined my application on the grounds of x,y,z. It seemed like a standard letter with no real reference to my personal situation.

Naturally I challenged it within the 21 day allowed time, and today I received a notification of a £1150+ refund.

This means that my council tax is paid in full for the 2007-2008 and they we me an extra £100.00 or so !!!!

Result :T

jc&sdc

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO GIVE ADVICE ON THIS SITE KEEP UP THE GOOD
WORK

Local Borough Council: Knowlsey
Council Tax Band Before: C
Council Tax Band After: B
Amount refunded: Awaiting Cheque

i am still awaitng my cheque as knowsley council have to work out manualy from 1996 ( only llast 10yrs on computer system) the amount for 11 yrs was £1564 and rising

shaymenRup

shaymenRup wrote: »

Council : Calderdale
Banding before : F
Banding now : E
Refund : still being calculated
Saving per year £300

It was as easy as Martin said. My house stuck out like a sore thumb. I was band F all my neighbours in identical houses Band E. Sent proof from VOA site and Nationwide to them and they wrote back within four weeks informing me of the change.

Started helping a few friends and neighbours now. As well as obviously plugging this site.

Refund : £1730

oops_a_daisy

Just to add my little story

I wasnt going to bother looking into this as I thought I would be on the correct banding - I was WRONG. Having looked at all of my neighbours bandings I realised that all of the houses in my street were put under band D whether they are 3 bed, 4 bed, 5 bed or semi or detached ! The houses were built in 1996 onwards and it seems that the buliders just lumped everybody under the same banding regardless of value. My own particular house even at 1996 prices should have been in band C let alone 1991 prices so I have made a call to Stockton on Tees Borough Council and they are going to re assess. The lady I spoke to said they had a big waiting list for re assessments due to publicity so she told me I would probably have to wait 2 months but Im not going anywhere and am now looking forward to 7 years' worth of incorrect charges back

I would recommend anybody to look into this - it probably took me 15 minutes tops to do the research and make a phone call.

Thanks for reading - OOPS

ps - just noticed this thread is for successes only - if a moderator wants to remove it please do so