Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

lincroft1710

Silver82 said:

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 

 

What document is this which says your property was valued at £45,500 in 1992?  If it was a sale document, it begs the question why didn't the owners at the time appeal the CT band in 1993? Is your home a former council house by any chance?

Ignore NW and similar calculators as they will be inaccurate and the VOA will not accept them as evidence to support a lower band.

VHappy1

Many thanks for the great advice on Council Tax rebanding. We passed the 'neighbour check' but failed the 'valuation check', so we weren't in the best category and there was a risk that neighbours could be rebanded upwards. But the results were phenomenal:

Local council: Charnwood
Previous band: E
Revised band: D
Refund: £8,529.30
Monthly saving: £37

The Valuation Office took a while to reband as the appeal was delayed due to workload.

As we have occupied the property since Council Tax was introduced, the refund was backdated to 1993. 

Two very nice cruises now happily booked!

Many thanks Martin...now on to the car finance claim!!

norm_

Sent a challenge 17th January, got a reply 31st Jan to say they would investigate. Yesterday I received an email saying they agreed to drop my band from D to C, so an excellent result. Thank you MSE.

I am due about 6 years worth of refund, approx £1200.

grahamandalison

Local council: Telford & Wrekin
Previous band: G
Revised band: F
Refund: £8,071.82
Monthly saving: £45

As we have occupied the property since Council Tax was introduced, the refund was backdated to 1993. It's a unique property so "neighbour comparisons" didn't seem appropriate at the time.   I was never entirely happy with the G banding but it's only since so much data became available on the web (house price indexes and the like) that confidence to challenge grew.  I indexed what we actually paid in 1986 to April 1991 and came up £20000 short of the band G starting rate.  The lady on the phone at the valuation office was a delight, the letter came through a month earlier than she said it would and I've just had a revised bill showing a credit of £5200 (they've deducted the CT for the current year from the total which doesn't seem unreasonable).  Simple online form to claim the refund.  I never got to participate in the "PPE savings scheme" because I always got the tick boxes right, but this is just as good.

ML_username

Local Borough Council: Cheshire West and Chester
Council Tax Band Before: Band E
Council Tax Band After: Band D
Amount refunded:£3,100

Thank you Martin!  We watched your council tax discussion in January 2024, and decided to try to get a refund.  We live in an end-of-terrace house - but our house had the outrigger removed back in the 1960's.  Of course this is not visible from the street, so we were put into the same band as the other houses in the terrace - band E.  After much research I was able to provide the proof that the house was indeed smaller in the 1991-93 timeframe, and VOA agreed!  We bought our house in 2016, so we have been reimbursed £3100 by the Council for those 7 1/2 years.

I do have two questions for you though:
1. £1 in 2016, 2017, 2018 etc was worth more than £1 as of today (basically caused by inflation).  However, the council did not take that into account.  Is there some way to get the Council to reimburse us the additional monies due to the inflation?

2. The Council did not add interest to the reimbursement.  Shouldn't they have also reimbursed us for our lost interest?

My two points are clearly a national issue not a local council issue so I haven't bothered to ask the council.  Do I have any hope?

Regards,

-name withheld by request-

lincroft1710

ML_username said:

I do have two questions for you though:
1. £1 in 2016, 2017, 2018 etc was worth more than £1 as of today (basically caused by inflation).  However, the council did not take that into account.  Is there some way to get the Council to reimburse us the additional monies due to the inflation?

2. The Council did not add interest to the reimbursement.  Shouldn't they have also reimbursed us for our lost interest?

My two points are clearly a national issue not a local council issue so I haven't bothered to ask the council.  Do I have any hope?

Regards,

-name withheld by request-

A very frequent question on these boards. But as there is no reference paying interest in CT legislation (nor adjusting for inflation)  the answer is no to both questions

Sunnyspring

Local Borough Council: New Forest
Council Tax Band Before: Band E
Council Tax Band After: Band D
Amount refunded:£6600

Thank you Martin! After researching similar houses in my area it became apparent that  we were in the same council tax band as 4 & 5 bedroom houses.

After completing the online form in February to challenge our band and submitting evidence of other similar houses in a band D, we have just received a refund of over £6600!

Our neighbours in the same style house as ours have automatically been rebanded too thanks to my challenge. 

InTheMoneyAsWell

Local Borough Council: Stafford
Council Tax Band Before: Band E
Council Tax Band After: Band D
Amount refunded:£3877

I tried to get our house rebanded a few years ago, but it was turned down. So I tried again in January, with more information about neighbours house's of the same style as ours, which were in the lower band. Success this time, took 3 months for valuation office to do their thing. It's been back dated 9 years. 

Slight fly in the ointment is we don't get the lumpsum back, as the the council have taken the full amount of council tax out for this year. We'll get the remainder & no council tax to pay for the rest of the year. But we'll be £270 better off per month till April 2025, then around £50 per month after that. 

Sunnyspring

InTheMoneyAsWell said:

Local Borough Council: Stafford
Council Tax Band Before: Band E
Council Tax Band After: Band D
Amount refunded:£3877

I tried to get our house rebanded a few years ago, but it was turned down. So I tried again in January, with more information about neighbours house's of the same style as ours, which were in the lower band. Success this time, took 3 months for valuation office to do their thing. It's been back dated 9 years. 

Slight fly in the ointment is we don't get the lumpsum back, as the the council have taken the full amount of council tax out for this year. We'll get the remainder & no council tax to pay for the rest of the year. But we'll be £270 better off per month till April 2025, then around £50 per month after that. 

We had the same thing happen to us where the council took out £2200 for the years tax ahead.
i called the council and explained that we budget monthly for our council tax and would like the full amount of our refund payed to us and they said yes. 

Definitely worth calling them if you would prefer the lump sum. 

Hope this helps!

Cardew

Without going through the whole thread, have there been reports of re-banding 'upwards'?