Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

lincroft1710

russ281 said:

Hi all,
I'm after a bit of advice before I take the plunge and challenge. 
I live on a road of 21 pretty identical houses. 6x band D. 15x band E (including me).
I've done the 1991 valuation calculation and they all come out at band D (with 2 exceptions).
However, when starting a claim on the gov.uk website it clearly states it won't take this type of evidence. I'm a bit unclear on what other evidence I can give (beyond the neighbour check that shows the disparity in current bands).
Any advice on what evidence can be used/will work would be appreciated! 

Interesting that most are in Band E, which certainly doesn't help your case. Are there any differences between the Band D and Band E houses? 


look further afield and see if you can find other houses pf the same age size and type as yours in Band D

mouseshadow2001

I posted last year about my frustration dealing with the VOA, however I can now report a success, following multiple emails being ignored, including one with the EPC attached showing the house was 11 square metres smaller following the extension from 2000, and making a written complaint to the Valuation Officer at Durham which was also never acknowledged, I made a complaint regarding the service I had received. You can’t appeal the decision but you can complain when you have received poor service, and I felt the continued failure to answer my emails fell into that category. I was asked what impact the poor service had on me and the resolution I wanted. I said I would like the evidence I had provided to be assessed correctly. The gentleman who dealt with the complaint actually phoned and spoke to me personally and told me it would be done by the end of January. The following Monday I got a letter saying my band had been revised down to Band B, and the same day an email from the local council letting me know that a refund of £4211 was being processed into my account. This arrived the same week. Never got an answer as to why my emails were not answered but in a way she did me a favour by doing that or I wouldn’t have able to make the service complaint.

Darleycross

Local Borough Council: Barnsley MBC
Council Tax Band before: E
Council Tax Band after: D
Amount Refunded: 6483.61
Thank You Martin, you gave us the confidence to try again.
following our initial request to have our council tax reviewed, We received an email from the Valuation office stating they had done a full examination of the points we made and they concluded that our banding was correct and they will not be undertaking another review of our banding. 
However a year later I contacted them again with some new information. They requested we send them copies of the new information and they will review it again. I had acquired the plans of our house from when it was built and the measurements of the living space had been wrong from the start. They were completely different from the identical house next door.
as a result we received a refund of over 6 thousand pounds and a reduction in our monthly council tax bill. 
Thanks again Martin.

bec1234

Local Borough Council: Wrexham
Council Tax Band Before: G
Council Tax Band After: F
Amount refunded: unsure as yet think £1600
Annual saving going forward: £400 pa

Followed the guidance on here and submitted in the new Year, heard nothing so resubmitted evidence and within a week (28/2/2024) received notification that my Council Tax Band had been lowered to F.
Thanks for the advice!

JAV39

I have contacted VOA to ask if they will review our banding. Unfortunately most of the houses and bungalows are different from each other in our street. Some are large 5 bed homes, down to 2 bed bungalows, some have double garages some single, so makes it difficult to to gauge. Banding in our road are 3 x E which are 3 bed bungalows, maybe 10 x G which are all large 4/5 bed houses and the rest are F which are 2/3 bed bungalows and 3-4 bed houses. I have indicated that the bungalows although different in design and similar in size to mine and ive found a couple in the next street which again are similar and all on a Band E. Im on an F so hoping to get it reduced. I have had an email stating they aim to conduct a review and i will hear within 90 days. So fingers crossed

Jumbo159

Thanks Martin and team, I got an excellent result.   

Local Council: Folkestone and Hythe District Council
Council Tax Band Before: C
Council Tax Band After: B
Amount refunded: £3627.23
Annual saving going forward: £244.11

I just followed your simple instructions, compared my property with that of neighbouring properties and got the result and funds paid within 30 days, no quibble.

MusicLover235

Local Borough Council: Brent
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount refunded: TBC
Annual saving going forward: £427.66

My story in brief: Successful on my 3rd attempt. 1st one a few years ago my evidence was not sufficient for them to investigate then I lost interest

2 and 3 last year in December I tried again and again the properties I submitted were not comparable enough to mine.

3 this time following from the 2nd attempt I didn’t lose interest and was determined, so I called up the VO directly and got through to an extremely helpful advisor who went through all the properties in my postcode and help me identify which properties I should use as evidence using information from their records such as the size and band of properties. He help me select 3 properties one that was bigger than mine which was on band B, one that was same size on band C and one that was bigger on band D. He said I had a very strong case. I resubmitted my evidence then got a response saying that based upon the new evidence they will investigate! (In December). 

I’ve not actually received formal notification form them or the council but I Kept checking the band via the gov website which stayed the same for what felt like an eternity but to my surprise and delight it had changed on Friday evening!! 

My advice is call them if all else fails! 

MusicLover235

Oh to add to my post they also changed my downstairs neighbours to band D from E.. 

Silver82

Local Council: Fareham
Current Band C

I haven't yet started as getting evidence, while getting evidence I have a HM land registry document that says my property was valued at £45,500 in 1992. On the Nationwide calculator it says it was £49 557 in 1991. Which means I should be a band B. However if I put in the value I paid in 2007 it calculates the value of my property as much higher £55,335. Does anyone know why this is? If I put in my neighbor's properties which are all similar to mine how will I know if this is accurate?? Do I need to see if my elderly neighbors still have the same documents I do from the land registry to prove valuation? I think my whole street may be on the wrong band as all of our properties are 3 bed terraced only one has had an extension, the rest are the same as when built in the 50's 

Silver82

Forgot to say that all the properties in my street are band c expect 1 that is band D as it is 4 bed.