Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

lincroft1710

Cardew said:

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

Re--banding upwards most definitely occurs, but I don't know if it is mentioned in previous posts on this thread

panyg

Local Borough Council: London borough of Enfield
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount refunded: £3619.99
Annual saving going forward: £344.25

I always knew I was in the wrong band as half the street is in band D and half is in band E.

I challenged in 2015 but was rejected. I tried again this year, mentioning 20 houses in the same road being band D. I also mentioned that one of the houses in the middle of the band E houses was a D.

About 6 weeks later, I noticed I had a payment of £3619.99 from Enfield Council in my account!! I didn't receive any communications from valuation office but Enfield Council wrote to me a few weeks after the payout with a list of amended records.

MammaLu

Local Borough: North Tyneside Council
Council Tax Band Before: D
Council Tax Band After: C
Amount Refunded : £4370.50
Annual Savings Going Forward: £246.72

Watched Martin Lewis TV advice to check neighbouring equivalent properties' banding and found immediate neighbour (different house type) was one band lower. We both occupied our homes from new builds in 1998, different house style but same sq.m and same purchase price. I collated example figures of 3 different properties on our estate that had been sold a number of times over the last 26 years as comparison to show market value was always equivalent. Completed an online challenge, which I had to follow up after 6 month deadline as no firm response beyond the original email acknowledgement. I was then advised VOA were considering the evidence - 3 weeks later I have a postal notice of revised banding C and new 24-25 Council Tax Demand notice which details exact refund for each year since 1998. Unbelievable result.
Mr.Lewis has led us to save and recover a lot of money we otherwise would not have had (also claimed this year for backdated Married Tax Allowance we weren't aware we could have) 

thomas01155

Local Borough Council: Brighton and hove
Council Tax Band Before: D
Council Tax Band After: B

Took awhile and ended up proceeding to the VTE, due to the poor conduct of the VOA. It seemed like they were very resilient and steadfast in dismissing numerous peoples proposals. 

The order to change the band was confirmed in writing by the VTE. I did not trust their settlement by agreement form, since they are actually able to undo it, and then start the whole ordeal again. So I asked them to send me the form to show they had agreed and they present it to the tribunal. I would have agreed to the settlement by agreement if it had happened earlier in the process, but the VOA seem to enjoy playing games rather than doing their jobs correctly and had lost all trust in them by the end.

Grumoy_old_git

Local Borough Council: Newark and Sherwood
Council Tax Band Before: G
Council Tax Band After: F
Amount refunded: £9,400
Annual saving going forward: £550

I was originally a bit dubious about the prospects of a successful claim, but a few years ago I noticed one of our neighbours, on a small cul-de-sac of around 30 houses, was in a lower band. The cul-de-sac was a road of new build houses built between 1998 and 2000, our house was build in 1999 and we moved in to it that year.

I never got around to doing anything until the beginning of this year and noticed there were now two houses at the lower band. Our house is the smallest on the road so I thought I would give it a try. I followed the recommendations in the MSE guide and submitted a re-banding request in January. The request was originally rejected fairly quickly stating not enough evidence was provided and then listed all of the types of evidence required which I had already provided. So I decided to give them a call and ask what was wrong with the evidence. During the call the person I was speaking to talked about the size data they had for our house rather than the value, they mentioned something they called PADS data and quoted the square footage they had on record. This did not sound correct, so I asked them to email me a copy of the data. I then checked with some old measurements I had a knew that the data they had was incorrect. To make sure I new accurate measurements of the outside dimensions of our house, drew a plan of the house and noted the measurements on each wall on the plan, then calculated the square footage, which turned out to be about 25% smaller.

I submitted a new request in February to which I got an automated response stating I would hear back in 90 days. The 90 days came and passed, so after another month I called again and got told there was a backlog and I should hear in about two weeks more. I waited another 6 weeks and called again and got told that the request had been approved at the beginning of September. I subsequently received a letter from the Valuation Office Agency confirming the band review, and a separate letter from the local council with the results of the revaluation which was backdated 25 years to 1999.

We are obviously very pleased with this outcome and thankful for MSE in keeping prompting people to look into this and submit requests. If you live in a house built since the council tax bands were originally set I would recommend asking about the property data for your house to check if they have recorded a size for the property and whether it is correct.

BFG123

After waiting 7 months I've finally had notification from the Valuation Office that my challenge request has been approved. This was due to my property details being held incorrectly (VOA had my property recorded as a 4-bed instead of 3-bed). I will be moving down from Band E to Band C effective from 2018.

I received email confirmation from the Valuation Office of this on 10th Sep 2024 and postal confirmation on 17th Sep 2024. In this communication they stated that my local Council had already been informed of the change, but my Council have said that they've still not been updated on this and it is not updated on my online Council Tax Account with my Council. 

How long have people waited between the Valuation Office approving a Band challenge and their Council being notified/changing the Band? I'm obviously keen this is sorted asap due to owed funds and ongoing payments. 

Thanks

blandcomet

After waiting 8 months for a decision on our appeal, the appeal got accepted but the effective date is 2 weeks ago! This means that the 2 years we have been in the property is not back dateable! They wouldn't event set it to the date we put the appeal in....

Anyone else had this? Such a joke!

Local Borough Council: Tewkesbury Borough Council
Council Tax Band Before: F
Council Tax Band After: E
Amount refunded: £0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Annual saving going forward: £550

JAV39

Local Borough Council: Stratford District Council
Council Tax Band Before: F
Council Tax Band After: E
Amount refunded: £2200 
Annual saving going forward: £507

Many thanks Martin and team, i decided to take a chance and ask for our bungalow to be re-assessed as our road has a mixture of homes 4-5 bed houses and 3-4 bed bungalows and and no 2 are the same. Most are F & G bands with only 2 that are E's
I sent a polite email in Feb and got the standard thank you we will investigate letter. I hadn't heard anything passed the 90 days so thought one last push and just reminded them about my case in mid July.
Still nothing and then a couple of weeks ago i received a letter from the VOA saying that they had reduced our house to an E banding and that it has been forwarded on the SDC. 
We received payment in to account and nothing to pay the rest of this year. So saved us £2700
Wanted to thank everyone for giving people the courage to attempt things like this. 

lincroft1710

blandcomet said:

After waiting 8 months for a decision on our appeal, the appeal got accepted but the effective date is 2 weeks ago! This means that the 2 years we have been in the property is not back dateable! They wouldn't event set it to the date we put the appeal in....

Anyone else had this? Such a joke!

Local Borough Council: Tewkesbury Borough Council
Council Tax Band Before: F
Council Tax Band After: E
Amount refunded: £0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Annual saving going forward: £550

Have you asked the VOA why they will not backdate it?

The_Flying_Monkey

Now 9 months since I put my claim in. Have made numerous chase up calls & get same answer every time that it will be actioned as soon as they can but they cannot tell me when.