Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

niallsnanna_2

Council: Oadby and Wigston (Leicestershire)
Council tax banding before: C
Council tax banding after: B
Amount refunded: £1200

After hearing about this on the Jeremy Vine show a few weeks ago, I followed the instructions on the website. I have to say, all credit to both the Leicester Valuation Office and Oadby and Wigston Council; one phone call was all that it took. The V.O. was extremely helpful, when I explained that all the other semis in my small Close were band B and mine was a C he basically said to leave it with him. The week before last, I got a letter confirming that I was in the wrong band and had been since April 1993, last week I received the amended invoices from the council and this morning - happy Monday - I received a cheque in the post. SO painless!!:rotfl:
Thank you SO much Martin, you're a saint:A

gogsboy

wichitalinesman wrote: »

:j MORAY COUNCIL .WE WERE BAND C AND WERE LOWERED TO A BAND B. WE GOT £1500 THANKS TO MARTIN'S MONEY TIPS AND ARE £150 LESS EACH YEAR. THANKS AGAIN

I know someone who has just bought a house in this area and they have received a letter saying they want to up the banding from B to C.

Why would they do this and how easy is it to object and do you need to give reasons, if so what sort of reasons.

She had been notified that is was Band B but now they say due to alterations completed prior to purchase they are required to review.

Now the only so called alterations was that a single garage had been extended to make is a single and a half garage basically to use up dead space toward the angled boundry wall.

Can anyone give some advice or amo even to go back to them to make a so called formal proposal.

Thanks

sare_2

I looked into this on behalf of my Aunt.Found the same style houses and larger ones were all a band lower and hers was the smallest, most basic type on the street.Phones the VOA and within 8 weeks we got it lowered.
Scarborough Borough Council
Was Band C
Now Band B
Amount refunded: £1200

Lucy_Leigh

Local Borough Council: Bournemouth Borough Council
Council Tax Band Before: C
Council Tax Band After: B
Amount refunded: £432.60

Worth looking into.... i did and what a result!!!
Thanks Martin!!!:money:

Zebedeee

gogsboy wrote: »

I know someone who has just bought a house in this area and they have received a letter saying they want to up the banding from B to C.

Why would they do this and how easy is it to object and do you need to give reasons, if so what sort of reasons.

She had been notified that is was Band B but now they say due to alterations completed prior to purchase they are required to review.

Now the only so called alterations was that a single garage had been extended to make is a single and a half garage basically to use up dead space toward the angled boundry wall.

Can anyone give some advice or amo even to go back to them to make a so called formal proposal.

Thanks

gogsboy,

If they do put up the banding you have 6 months from that date to lodge an appeal. I wouldn't have thought that a small garage extension would be a good reason to raise the band, personally.

Have a look on the discussion board http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=278090 where you will find loads of excellent suggestions which have helped many to get their banding changed. Sometimes its easy, but for many its not.

You can request a banding appeal online on the VOA's own website.

Hope that helps,

Zebedee

millieflo

Local Borough Council: Broxtowe
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount refunded: £2900
Annual saving going forward: £400

I followed the instructions on the website and received back payments to 1997 within 6 weeks and then a further payment back to 1993 about a month later. This was because records before 1997 weren't held electronically.
I found that our house was in band E whilst 2 identical houses across the road were in Band D. It was changed really quickly and efficiently by everyone involved.

Captain_Pie

Local Borough Council: Bracknell Forest
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount refunded: TBD
Annual saving going forward: Not yet known

Firstly, a big thanks to Martin - my wife and I stand to save a packet thanks to you.

We moved into our house at the beginning of the year - our house is a 3 bedroom detached property. It sits in a small row of detached houses, although the other houses are substantially larger, have more bedrooms and have sizeable extensions etc.

From the outside, to the casual observer, the properties all look the same - however our house is smaller. I have no doubt that when the valuations were done, someone drove past all the houses in the row, saw that they all looked the same cosmetically and slapped them all in the same band.

Martin's suggestion was to check your banding against your neighbours and check the house price index - if both go in your favour, then file the appeal. In our case, only the index went in our favour - but our neighbours house's cannot be compared to our own.

We thought about it and realised that the worst case scenario would be that the VOA say we are in the correct band, best case that they accept our appeal. We couldn't imagine that they would push us up to band F, higher than our neighbours with larger houses.

As my wife and I had read about the "6 month rule" we challenged the banding online at the VOA site. We had an acknowledgement in the post, a letter about how to challenge the final verdict (just in case) and then out of the blue, a letter from our local VO.

The local VO agreed with our reasoning (that I've given above) and agreed that the band should be lowered to D from E. :j We were elated and we will get back the money we paid since moving in earlier in the year. I can't imagine the previous owner of the house being too chuffed though

Once again, thanks Martin and all at MSE.com! :beer:

GrahamP

Local Borough Council: Mid Sussex
Council Tax Band Before: F
Council Tax Band After: E
Amount refunded: £75
Annual saving going forward: £300

I followed the money saving expert guidance and appealed online successfully. Take care to read the questions carefully and answer exactly because the authorities do apply the letter of the regulations, sometimes to the exclusion of common sense, and they will not tell you where you may have given incorrect information.

There is a catch in the regs that states that you have to apply within 6 months of becoming the council tax payer which I did.

I have an unresolved appeal for my last property where I have been overcharged for 11.5 years (£2,500 - £3,000) and am still progressing a refund.

culpritmojo

Hi

I have also had a success, after trying to get rebanded for about 4-5 years. Does anyone know if we are entitled to Statutory Interest on the money they have had for over 6 years. I think we might be!

Pocoyo

Local Borough Council: Macclesfield.
Council Tax Band Before: E.
Council Tax Band After: D.
Amount refunded: Approx £3500.
Annual saving going forward: £320.

This isn't my story, it's my in-laws. We both had a go at appealing our banding, unfortunately mine was rejected (there is a property the same as our one band lower but they are incorrectly banded, not us).

Anyway, I checked the value of my in-laws house and realised they had a good case. I printed off the info from this site and passed it on to them. They phoned up and approximately 8 weeks later received the news they have been rebanded to band D. :T Since they have lived in the house for 25 years the refund will be backdated to 1993.