Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

Youngy

Local Borough Council: Stratford on Avon
Council Tax Band Before: H
Council Tax Band After: G
Amount refunded: £3800
Annual saving going forward: £438pa

To cut a long story short, we were originally told were no grounds for appeal (under 6 months rule) But went to the tribunal in person and explained why felt were grounds and why should be in lower band - even tho were told this was not to determine that. The secretary explained we would hear back the outcome.

And today we have received a letter from the VOA saying they have rebanded us down to band G from band H, effective from 1st April 1993

That is great news in itself, but how do we go about requesting a restrospecitve refund from our local council? Is this done automatically? Also will any refund inc back interest.

Although has taken approx 6 months we now have a huge £438pa saving and looking forward to a nice refund! Many many thanks to all who have given advice and especially Martin

cheap_boy

Local Borough Council: Derby City.
Council Tax Band Before: D
Council Tax Band After: C
Amount refunded: none as yet - but eagerly awaiting.

i applied for rebanding on line, recived a letter from the local authority stating that they would not change the banding, as the house i used as an example was a smaller size. i phoned them bac and argued that most of the street were a lower band than me. then - quoting martin - i asked them to either 'lower my band or change the streets to match mine.

i recieved a letter today from the VOA - stating that they have rebanded me to a C from a D - saving approcimatley £112 per year.
i recieved 2 letters in total and sent 1 email - totally worth it.
:T

xmarilyn

:T :T I found this site about 8 months after buying a Band D property. I did some research as the site advised and rang with my challenge. The written reply said no! But I wrote back saying the evidence was overwhelming and quoted chapter and verse, they sent out someone to assess and withing weeks I was Band C. I got about £200 refund and it will be about £150 per year less. Not a lot but it all helps, and I can use it better than the North Cornwall District Council.

Thanks.

The aim is to show others that it works.

Please report your successes here, if possible in the format:

Local Borough Council:
Council Tax Band Before:
Council Tax Band After:
Amount refunded:
Annual saving going forward:

Plus if possible a few details on your experiences.

• Read the article
  Council Tax Cashback
• Discuss the issues
  Discussion on Council Tax Cost Cutting

IMPORTANT NOTE! This thread is only to report succcesses

Please note this thread is ONLY for reporting successes/experiences. It isn't for answering questions, discussing what to do, or postulating on the general issues; any posts of that nature will be deleted. If you want to do that please instead go to the Discussion on Council Tax Cost Cutting

[/quote]

pomcycle

Local Borough Council: Southampton
Council Tax Band Before:
Council Tax Band After:
Amount refunded: £191
Annual saving going forward:

It was quite easy to do, only took a couple of phone calls and a bit of work online.
We had been saving up for a Wii for several months- this covered it :j

I'm sure eventually the council tax will have to rise to compensate for everyone doing this but if you can get in while you can its easy money.

phizz_2

Hi, i took your advice and checked the council tax of my neighbours and found that there are houses in my street that are on band 'b' whereas i was on band 'c'. I appealed straight away and was delighted to be tol that there was an error in my tax and it was being put down to band 'b' back payed to 1st April 2001. Although i was naturally delighted i have now written to ask why it was not being backdated to 1993 when i moved into this property. Iam awaiting their reply, 'watch this space'. By the way, i received a rebate of over £600.
Thanks very much.
PHIL FINCH

mcrowder

Local Borough Council: South Beds.
Band Before: E
Band After: D
Amount Refunded: £3050:j

When we moved into our property in 1986 I queried the tax band but was told nothing could be done until a complete revaluation of all properties took place. We just left it. After reading your advice we followed everything you advised us to do and found the procedure quite straightforward. As we do not live on an estate but rather a 'mixed' road of properties it took a bit of legwork in order to make details of properties sold & prices but it was well worth it. We did not hear anything for 4 months & I was just about to phone when we received a letter telling us our tax band was being reduced & the following week we received our refund from the council backdated to 1991. It was well worth the effort as you can see.
Many thanks.

Marilyn

Grianne

Local Borough Council: Borough of Broxbourne
Band Before: E
Band After: D
Amount Refunded: £2078.11 :T backdated to 1993
AND Council Tax paid up till March 08

I applied to the VO using Martins step-by-step guide and duly got the 'invalid claim' letter. I sent off all my evidence incl. recent street sale prices, comparison property info, Nationwide valuation as of 1993 and a copy of the original VO valuation i received when i purchased the property from the Highways Agency back in 1993. Was told I would have to go to tribunal (groan) but nevertheless they would look into it anyway (then why bother going to tribunal i wondered )

Left it for a while and low and behold, got a letter a month ago saying the VO were reducing our banding from E to D!! Hurrah!! I have, however, had to chase the council as i hadnt heard anything from them at all, but after a brief phone call, it will be paid into my account a week on Monday!

I forgot to ask about interest though as I have seen other people have received interest. Surely after 14 years im due something so I think I will have to call them back on Monday.

Thanks Martin et all !!:D

luckyboy2600

I have recently challenged my Council Tax band and won.
The 2 houses next door were a Band D and I was a Band E. Identical houses.
I wrote to the Valuation Officer and said I was in the wrong band and asked them to correct this anomaly, I said that 2 of my neighbours were in Band D.
A few weeks later I had a cheque for over £2600. We have been in the house since the banding started so this went back about 14 years.
The local authority is Waverley Borough Council, Surrey.
The refund will pay for my new gas boiler!!

myrus1927

London Borough of Croydon
Band before: E
Band after: D
Refund received approx £2,500 to 31 March 2007
Ongoing saving: £300 reduction for 2007-2008

I had long been unhappy with my Council tax banding and your article showed me where to find the tools to challenge it.
As I had suspected, my initial research showed that near identical houses on every side of me were in Band D. Testing my figures using the HPI also showed that my property was well within Band D.

I therefore lodged an appeal with the Valuation Office. As you had indicated they came back with a Notification of an Invalid Proposal but also stated the Valuer had a statutory responsibility to check the bandings.
As I wanted to maintain the momentum I lodged an Appeal (against the Invalidity Notice not the valuation) and subsequently received notification of a Tribunal date.

The leaflet from the Tribunal suggests that you should still try and reach an agreement with the Valuation Officer before the hearing. I therefore wrote to the officer for an update. About 7-10 days before the hearing date I received a letter from the Valuation Office confirming that my property was being rebanded to Band D (with effect from 1 April 1993) and requesting that I should withdraw my Appeal as the grounds no longer appeared to be valid!

I just wonder whether the Valuer would ever have got round to reviewing the banding had it not been for the pressure of an Appeal hearing date?

All good news then, except LB Croydon then took a further 9 weeks to process the refund, but at last I have the cheque in my hands!

Many many thanks for the advice and guidance

woodulike

Local Council: Mid Suffolk
Band Before G
Band After F

Don't know about rebate as we have only just received the letter saying that we are going to be re-banded, but we are going to be paying about £300 a year less than we currently are and we have been in the property for just over three years.

After hearing Martin on Radio 2 many months ago I took a look at the bands of the other houses in our street. It is very mixed housing and the houses are all different but on a quick look it seemed that most other houses closest to ours are band F. So I wrote to ask for a change of the band.
We initially received forms back and had to file an official request.
We then received a letter back saying that they thought we were in the right band. This letter also said there was no right of appeal etc. as it was more than the 6 months after moving in.
So I then did a little more research. I checked the names of all the houses and then looked them all up. I then discovered that we were the only one in Band G, every one else is in Band F or lower. I wrote back detailing all the properties and the Bands that they are in, and many were changed from Band G down to F at an earlier time. (I guess that most people had complained when they first bought their houses.) I detailed all this.
This time we received a letter back saying that they now considered us in the wrong band and we have had to sign a form and they are going to change it.
The point of this post is to say that it is always worth trying again with another letter if you really think that the band is wrong and have further details to present to them. I nearly left it after the first letter, but I'm glad now that I tried again.