Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

Tallulah_Chicken

Local Borough Council: North East Derbyshire
Council Tax Band Before: B
Council Tax Band After: A
Amount refunded: £2360.00
Annual saving going forward:£160 a year

Simply sent a letter in to the VOA explaining that we live at the end of a terrace of 30 identical houses, 29 were band A and we were band B! Also helped that we had a valuation that was done for a remortgage in 1993 which showed that we were in the band A category. They sent us a questionnaire to complete ('how many bedrooms/bathrooms/living rooms etc. in your house?') which we returned with a photo of the terrace and have received notification today that they have amended the listing back to 1993! I was surprised how easy it was - I was ready for a fight!!

juliamd

Mid Beds District Council
council tax band before: E
Council tax band After : C

I have been very surprised today to recieve a letter from the valuation service saying we had been rebanded with effect from April 1993, surprised because we had not yet got round to doing anything about appealing our banding!! This is totally out of the blue. Are all councils going to start looking at their valuations or is ours particularly proactive.
I have now emailed them with a request for over payment refund and expect it to be fairly substantial, as we have lived hear since 1993. will post again when and if I get the refund, trying not to get too hopefull!!!

mallard126

Local Borough Council:Rushcliffe
Council Tax Band Before:E
Council Tax Band After:D
Amount refunded:£2420.48 (approx. 10 years)
Annual saving going forward:£330.00

Ever since we moved into our house we felt as if the council tax band was too high. My other half; who did the work, and therefore gets to spend the refund, saw a programme that Martin presented about council tax refunds.

She compared our house value on the web etc. (the house appeared to be well under the band E band) and contacted the local VOA office. The person on the other end of the phone was very friendly and seemed to think we had a good case. They said it would be approximately 8 weeks before we were informed of the decision. Almost to the day we received a letter from the VOA confirming our re-banding.

We have just received our rebate, and are understandably delighted. Many thanks to Martin & all his team.

Cheers Mallard126

darich

To those of you who have received large sums in backdated Council Tax - when did you apply for it?
The reason i ask is that my council have told me I'm beyond the 6month limit and after i disagreed with their decision (on the banding, not the time limit - it was 7months) it has gone to the secretary of the valuation panel.

The point is, if you all have received hundreds and sometimes thousands in refunded tax, then you've been in the wrong band for years. How come you are all being paid out and I've been told that my appeal is invalid?

Is it normal and I should just wait for the next step or is there something i should be prepared for??

Calm_Blue

North Leeds
Previous Band - F
New Band - E

After hearing Martin on Radio 2 I checked our council tax compared to our neighbours & realised that a house down the road which is exactly the same was in the band below ours. I checked the valuation for when we moved in (1999) and found that our house had been over valued by the council.
I applied for a " review" (I think that's what they call it, they are careful to remind you that you can not "appeal" in these circumstances!) and recently received a letter saying they will backdate to 1999. still waiting for the cheque, but am anticipating quite a lot! Thanks to all of you who put the site together to make it so easy to track what you have to do!:j

bigbaz1972nottingham

Council tax success
Nottingham
Previous Band B
New Band A

We have just moved in recently to a new house and looked at the council tax bill sent and was told we was in band B i thought that this was not right and appealed straight away after weeks of the local valuation office telling me the house was in the correct banding i told them that following Martins two stage review of what my house was worth back in 1991 they suddenly sent me a letter today to say after reviewing evidence (yeah right oh) they have now put me in to band A i have shown the neighbours my letter many of them are elderly and don't have access to a computer so i am now going to help them all out and get them nearly 14 years of council tax repayments as they are also in the wrong banding
Cheers Martin the term the best thing sinced sliced bread comes to mind but you have now saved me some bread and my neighbours will be getting more than a fair few loaves back in repayments

lectern

I had a rebanding of my property from band e to band d in westminster. Got £680 cashback from the 3 years I have lived here. Talking to the people who lived in the property before me I found that they had been sent money back for the time they lived in the property. They benefited automatically from all my hard work. Crazy!

Im_rod20

I have just successfully appealed against my Council Tax banding, and received a cheque from the local council, [South Ribble], for £1437.43. I would never have known that I had been paying too much each year to the council had I not read your article. I cant thank you enough. Drinks are on me if you are ever in this area.
I did find the red tape very tenuous, and had my appeal application rejected on 3 separate occasions, but my advise to anyone else in the future who are thinking of lodging an appeal, is DONT GIVE UP. If you think you are justified, you will eventually win. It took me over 6 months to get the right result, but the fight has been worth it, and in a way most enjoyable.

My thanks again to this wonderful site, keep up the good work.

Rod Bennison

markpen

I just had to write and say a big thank you for your advice on rebanding my property for council tax.
We first moved here in 1997 (10 years ago), we wrote to Hampshire County Council and explained that ours was the only property in our street paying band D, they told us there was nothing we could do until a review was carried out by the individual councils. we left it.
After reading your advice, i carried out the calculations and rang Hants Council again, different matter this time.
4 weeks later i received a cheque for £57 and a letter stating that we had been rebanded to a band C with effect from 1991, I wondered why we had only received £57, i rang them again and they explained that i would not have any payments to make this year, great news, very happy with that, i have also contacted the people i purchased the property off and told them to make the claim from 1991 until 1997.
My advice to people is if you beleive you are right, find out the legal way for sure, then follow it through until the end. many thanks MSE::beer: :beer:

tasilow

Have just been to a tribunal in Reading Berkshire, The VoA is claiming that because we did not claim unfair banding within 6 months of moving into our house in 1995 we cannot be rebanded. We were not the only people there and everyone had the same letters. If that is the case how are so many people getting money back???