Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

hartsdown

lincroft1710 said:

Poormum said:

Could anyone please tell me how long it took for you to get a banding change?? 

Voa finally agreed to review my banding on 11th May and I’ve not heard anything since. It’s been almost 3 months, I as just wondering if others waited this long? 

Can take months, so don't be too concerned

They keep changing the date, just received the following:

'Thank you for your email dated 15 August 2022.

We are still dealing with your case.  I appreciate you have previously been told that you will have a decision to your challenge within 90 working days.

As we are experiencing a continued high demand for our Council Tax service, it is taking longer for us to progress cases than previously informed. Additional resource is being deployed and our aim is to accelerate clearance.

As we received your challenge in April, we are aiming to provide you with a decision by mid-October.

We are currently working cases in date order and are progressing cases received in March 2022. 

Please continue paying your Council Tax while we look into your challenge.

Yours sincerely
Customer Service Centre'

As identical terrace houses both sides of me are a band lower, I believe I'm justified in assuming that my Direct Debit is wrong. I'm going to see what Nationwide's response is to that

lincroft1710

hartsdown said:

lincroft1710 said:

Poormum said:

Could anyone please tell me how long it took for you to get a banding change?? 

Voa finally agreed to review my banding on 11th May and I’ve not heard anything since. It’s been almost 3 months, I as just wondering if others waited this long? 

Can take months, so don't be too concerned

They keep changing the date, just received the following:

'Thank you for your email dated 15 August 2022.

We are still dealing with your case.  I appreciate you have previously been told that you will have a decision to your challenge within 90 working days.

As we are experiencing a continued high demand for our Council Tax service, it is taking longer for us to progress cases than previously informed. Additional resource is being deployed and our aim is to accelerate clearance.

As we received your challenge in April, we are aiming to provide you with a decision by mid-October.

We are currently working cases in date order and are progressing cases received in March 2022. 

Please continue paying your Council Tax while we look into your challenge.

Yours sincerely
Customer Service Centre'

As identical terrace houses both sides of me are a band lower, I believe I'm justified in assuming that my Direct Debit is wrong. I'm going to see what Nationwide's response is to that

You cannot assume your DD is wrong! The council will take the money from your NW account based on your current CT band. Until your band is changed by the VOA, the council are correctly charging you. NW only pay what the council asks, they are not involved in whether your band is correct or not. Failure to pay the amount required by the council can lead to legal action being taken against you.


Even if you are challenging your band, you are still legally obliged to continue paying your CT at the current band.


If your band is reduced then the council will refund any overpayment. 


Finally do bear in mind that it may be that your band is correct and the other two are incorrect.

lincroft1710

JamesSouthend said:

Hi Everyone

We live in a 2015 built house and we're Council Tax band G, as are the majority of houses on the estate. We've had a lot of back and forth with the VOA with similar local properties outside of our estate sitting at Council Tax band E. Our requests for review (6 separate enquiries) always included 5-10 comparable (IMO) properties complete with their address (sometimes included an accurate floorplan if one was included on a recent sale listing), original purchase date and current council tax banding. Each time we had the same response "Our records show that the list of properties you provided are all smaller than your own...". I ended up driving round to these houses and confirmed they were all larger than our own, even having a nice chat with a couple of the owners. The response from the VOA didn't change until the last one, in July, mentioned I could obtain a copy of my records so I could see the information held for my property used for comparison.

We sent off our Council Tax Bill with the request and the response back came in a couple of days...."Area - 233 Square Metres" caught my eye. The external dimensions of our house are 8.5m x 7.5m and 2 storeys so something had gone wrong somewhere. We had a Help to Buy Equity Loan which we had cleared when we remortgaged and needed a RICS Survey as part of the process which noted the house at 125 square metres. 

It's no wonder the VOA thought our property wasn't comparable to the many examples provided, they must have wondered why someone living in such a mansion would be bothering. 

Appeal went in on the 18th of July and we're still waiting but the service standard advised was 90 working(!) days so we're not chasing. 

My questions:
Have you any idea who provides the information to the VOA for assessment?
There's a similar housing estate built 2 years after ours and a lot of the properties there are Band G too, am I right to presume that there's a benchmark set, potentially on our estate, and it carries over to other newly built properties from then?

A colleague from work has just moved into a newly built 4 bedroom semi-detached house, around the same internal space as ours, a few miles up the road and it's a Band G too which seems mad! 

Apologies for the "text dump". I haven't had anyone to talk to about it

James

It is Forum policy not to make duplicate posts or threads (and this is in the wrong thread anyway). I have answered your query on your own thread

VMT

I am pleased to say that I have just received notification that my tax band will go from  G to F.

Local Borough Council:    Cherwell

Council Tax Band Before: G
Council Tax Band After:    F
Amount refunded:        £3930

Annual saving going forward:  £600

Here are my notes that may help others.

I kept meaning to challenge my CT band and finally got around to it in March this year.

First checked to see what the value of your property was in 1991. Mine fell into band F value so passed that one.

Next I checked tax bands for other properties and found that many were in a lower band (F). We live in a village and there are no similar properties in style to ours so I found several that had the same number of bedrooms, bathrooms, livings rooms etc (this is important) and which were in a lower tax band. I selected five properties. I then checked these five to find what the values were in 1991. Try and find when these were sold (search Zoopla and similar) to obtain a value and calculate using the MSE guide.

I  listed all of these details clearly together with a photo of each property in addition to my own and when we moved into this house and sent my challenge to the VOA clearly stating that I thought my property was in too high a band.

I had an email reply within about 10 days rejecting the challenge because they said I had not sent properties that were similar to mine. I immediately replied stating that there were none because we live in a village where all properties are different and those I sent for comparison were similar in size (in fact one was larger).  VOA acknowledged this and said they would check the valuation but this may take several weeks but if I had not heard within 5 weeks to chase them up. They are very busy and all challenges are placed  a queue in order of receipt. I had to chase them (be polite) a further two times mentioning that I am sure they are busy but I just wanted to know they were still looking at my challenge. Each time I got a clear reply giving an approx update.

 I finally received a letter (not email) early this month (October) confirming that the band would be changed from G to F and would be darted from when we moved into the house in 2011 (this is very important since the tax will be recalculated from this date) The VOA notify the Council who have just confirmed new tax payable plus a refund for 11 years since we moved here. Result.

My main advice is to be very clear in presenting your challenge and be polite in all correspondence. If the VOA dismiss your challenge immediately then persevere if you believe you have a strong case This is the second time I have successfully challenged and had my band reduced after we did the same at our previous property.

TheJP

Hi everyone,

My success story;

Local Authority - Wychavon 

Council Tax band before - E (Improvement indicator listed)

Bought house March 2021

Council Tax band changed to - F

After challenge Council Tax band changed to - E

There was only one other band F house on the street which is the biggest house on the street by far. Both neighbours each side with same size or bigger house are band E.

Challenged the banding roughly 6 months ago, i listed all the houses that were the same house as mine that hadnt been extended and those that were clearly bigger to show that the banding was incorrect. Some house that are the same style are on different bands. 

I haven't had any communication from VOA since i challenged. Wychavon council have sent a new tax bill with the band changed to E but oddly stating i owe them money which I'm certain is the other way round.

lincroft1710

TheJP said:

Hi everyone,

My success story;

Local Authority - Wychavon 

Council Tax band before - E (Improvement indicator listed)

Bought house March 2021

Council Tax band changed to - F

After challenge Council Tax band changed to - E

There was only one other band F house on the street which is the biggest house on the street by far. Both neighbours each side with same size or bigger house are band E.

Challenged the banding roughly 6 months ago, i listed all the houses that were the same house as mine that hadnt been extended and those that were clearly bigger to show that the banding was incorrect. Some house that are the same style are on different bands. 

I haven't had any communication from VOA since i challenged. Wychavon council have sent a new tax bill with the band changed to E but oddly stating i owe them money which I'm certain is the other way round.

It is most unusual for the VOA to reduce a CT band which had been appealed and not contact the CT payer. Similarly it is odd for a council to issue a revised CT bill based on a lower band and say the CT payer owes them money. Have you checked on the govt website that the band definitely has been reduced?

TheJP

lincroft1710 said:

TheJP said:

Hi everyone,

My success story;

Local Authority - Wychavon 

Council Tax band before - E (Improvement indicator listed)

Bought house March 2021

Council Tax band changed to - F

After challenge Council Tax band changed to - E

There was only one other band F house on the street which is the biggest house on the street by far. Both neighbours each side with same size or bigger house are band E.

Challenged the banding roughly 6 months ago, i listed all the houses that were the same house as mine that hadnt been extended and those that were clearly bigger to show that the banding was incorrect. Some house that are the same style are on different bands. 

I haven't had any communication from VOA since i challenged. Wychavon council have sent a new tax bill with the band changed to E but oddly stating i owe them money which I'm certain is the other way round.

It is most unusual for the VOA to reduce a CT band which had been appealed and not contact the CT payer. Similarly it is odd for a council to issue a revised CT bill based on a lower band and say the CT payer owes them money. Have you checked on the govt website that the band definitely has been reduced?

Big fat capital E on gov website. CT update was email which i think VOA use paper mail. Again shows how outdated that organisation is. Changes need to be made as to how people pay for council tax, needs to be means tested or per household headcount. The refuge operatives this week refused to empty a bin because they couldn't walk round a car. Mind boggles for what we actually pay for and in my case almost £300 pm!

CrissieB

Hi successfully lowered CT from a C to a B and a refund of £926.

It was so easy to do following all the advice on MSE.

lincroft1710

TheJP said:

lincroft1710 said:

TheJP said:

Hi everyone,

My success story;

Local Authority - Wychavon 

Council Tax band before - E (Improvement indicator listed)

Bought house March 2021

Council Tax band changed to - F

After challenge Council Tax band changed to - E

There was only one other band F house on the street which is the biggest house on the street by far. Both neighbours each side with same size or bigger house are band E.

Challenged the banding roughly 6 months ago, i listed all the houses that were the same house as mine that hadnt been extended and those that were clearly bigger to show that the banding was incorrect. Some house that are the same style are on different bands. 

I haven't had any communication from VOA since i challenged. Wychavon council have sent a new tax bill with the band changed to E but oddly stating i owe them money which I'm certain is the other way round.

It is most unusual for the VOA to reduce a CT band which had been appealed and not contact the CT payer. Similarly it is odd for a council to issue a revised CT bill based on a lower band and say the CT payer owes them money. Have you checked on the govt website that the band definitely has been reduced?

Big fat capital E on gov website. CT update was email which i think VOA use paper mail. Again shows how outdated that organisation is.


A lot of what the VOA do is governed by legislation, so they may be obligated to use paper mail. When I worked there, the attitude was "only do it if you have to and if there is a quicker way, use it"


Changes need to be made as to how people pay for council tax, needs to be means tested or per household headcount.


Only Parliament can change the way local government is financed, and there is no indication of them wanting to change the current system. The "household headcount" system was actually tried in 1990. It was known as the "Community Charge", or more commonly "Poll Tax", proved to be extremely unpopular and dropped 3 years later, being replaced by CT.  Certain low income households will qualify for CT reduction.


The refuge operatives this week refused to empty a bin because they couldn't walk round a car. Mind boggles for what we actually pay for and in my case almost £300 pm!


Your CT bill will show where the money collected from CT goes. At one time the biggest spend was education, but I believe it may now be adult social care. Failure to empty a bin should be reported to the relevant council department.

.............................

Theresec

Hi, I’m looking for a bit of advice really please. Our house is unique and unfortunately there is no other style of our house in my area to compare against.  There are only 5 detached houses on my road all different sizes/styles and all a lot bigger than our house and all the rest of the houses are either semi-detached or terrace houses which are also a lot bigger than ours.  Looking at the Council tax bandings there are a number of houses on our road which have been rebanded from E to D and these house are all bigger in size than ours. Would it be worth me applying to the VOA for a reband to band D or just leave it?