Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

Youngy

Keith1956 wrote: »

I'm glad you saw my post and are going to claim the interest back.

I haven't found a calculator for this but I just added 3% (which is an Inland Revenue Repayment Suppliment rate I understand) and worked out how much I had overpaid over the years back to 1993. I thought I was owed about £430 so I wasn't far out.

I had to write to the Customer Service Manager at the VOA office first, got refused and then wrote to the Chief Executive's Office for a caseworker to consider my claim. They call it compensation and not interest - but I don't mind, the money's in my pocket and not their's! They were easy to deal with, straightforward and polite.

Best of luck. Happy to help.

Keith

We had a £3800 refund (CT reband back-dated to 1993). So the interest is quite sizeable. Initially wrote to our local council but have received an email rejection. I will definitely be looking into your advice and writing to the VOA. Can you provide any further tips? Did you quote them a figure you had calculated? If so how did you come to the figure? Thanks for any help

dalore

Council: Ealing
Prior band: F
Current band: E

Our flat is in a newly-refurbished building (old govt office building turned into flats), and we are the first occupants (renters). Using the plan of our building on the internet, we established that we were the smallest flat in our building in band F, and that the largest band F flats in our building were almost 40% greater in size. We also looked up the sale price of our flat, then found all of the similar-sounding properties (outside of our building) in the area that sold for slightly more than ours in the previous six months and checked their banding, and none were in band F - most were in band D, with a few less in E and a couple in C.

So we wrote all of this in an email to the officer at the Valuations Office. We would have attended the hearing but were overseas at the time, and a month after the hearing we received a letter saying our flat had been rebanded to E!

pandapaws

Local Council: North Lincolnshire
Previous Band: F (!!!)
New band: E
Amount refunded: no cash refund, but £980 deducted from remainder of this year's bill
Annual saving: Think it's about £300

We moved into new-build house 3 yrs ago, and at the time challenged the banding as it was obviously too high. Was told that I could appeal, which would be a lengthy process, or just wait until the spring as the Govt were about to re-band every single home in the country anyway. With busy lifestyle etc, we went for the easy option and waited for the re-band - which as we all now know, never happened!

Was then told we'd lost our right to appeal because it had been more than 6 months since initial banding, and no amount of pleading would make them re-assess it. Nobody at the council mentioned going directly to the VOA about it.

Sent off the template letter and added the reason given above for the late appeal, and they said they would agree to re-value the house. 2 months later, they've agreed that we're band E and not F.

Incidentally, we're one of 6 identical houses on the development, and the others are also Band F. Have spoken to neighbours and given them a copy of the rebanding notice, and they're all going to apply as well, so you can potentially multiply my saving by 6!

:blushing: Thanks Martin! :blushing:

marjibaby

I moved house in July 2006. However I recently found out that the new occupier had the Council Tax band reduced. I wrote to Renfrew District Council, recorded delivery, a very short letter asking that they refund what I had been overcharged during the 18 years I had lived there.
Result - a phone call yesterday telling me they were sending out a cheque for over £1900.00 as well as writing off the rest of my Council Tax for this year!!

TightBelt_2

Local Borough Council: Daventry
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount Refunded: £2,581.79
Annual Savings Going Forward: approx. £300 per annum.

After seeing Martin on television, I decided to appeal to the Valuation Officer, sending him details of other tax bands in my area and also a valuation of my property based on the purchase price in 1987 and the Nationwide House Price Index valuation as at 1st April 1991.

I had a prompt reply which was rather disappointing as he did not consider that the legal requirements were satisfied (i.e. only six months to appeal) BUT, he also said that it was his responsibility to ensure that the Tax Bandings were fair and consistent and asked for further evidence.

I replied and sent copies of conveyancies from 1971 when the house was new, 1982 when it was sold for the first time and 1987 when I bought the property. Using the Nationwide House Price Calculator, none of these valuations reached the minimum valuation as at 1st April 1991. After 5 weeks I received a letter saying that the Tax Band was being reduced from Band E to Band D and two weeks later received a cheque from our council in the sum of £2,581.79 for overpaid council tax dating back to 1st April 1993. I would also estimate that the saving over the next ten years will be approximately £4,000.00.

So, if the Valuation Officer tells you that you do not meet the legal criteria, keep plugging away with as much evidence as possible.

Thank you sincerely Martin, your a star! Keith M

cdd

How did u find about the other's banding? I live in Lambeth too.

jennynoo wrote: »

Local Borough Council: Lambeth
Council Tax Band Before: C
Council Tax Band After: B
Refunded: £220

I was renting and had been in the flat for a year and a half before I saw Martin's article. When I checked the website I saw that two flats in my building were B and the rest (out of 12) were C but all the flats were the same! Even though I was over the 6 months and got repeated letters saying they wouldn't change the band I just waited - didn't have to do anything more than that - and eventually they changed the band and refunded my money. :T I wrote to everyone in my building who was still band C but don't know if they took it up. No one thanked me but I don't live there anymore so maybe they can't contact me. Someone is very kindly dropping off my post though, so thanks to that person if you are out there! :beer:

OldSkintBill

Local Borough Council: Fareham, Hampshire
Council Tax Band Before: B
Council Tax Band After: A
Amount refunded: £140.00
Annual saving going forward: £142.00
Time in Property: 1 year

Applied via the online VOA link supplied by Martin. Having lived at the property for a year I wasn't hopeful that I could still change band because I did not meet any of the listed VOA grounds for appeal for recoding. VOA sent me a letter after a couple of weeks saying my case wasn't vaild as I hadnt appealed against the banding within the first 6mths of moving in. However, they said they still will be investigating my case and provided a questionnaire to fill in.

After a couple of weeks I received a letter through from VOA that my band was to be changed to an A.

I contacted Fareham council after a further two weeks and was told that my tax bill would be adjusted for the overpayment. They do not send a cheque but instead significantly reduced the monthly payment for the rest of this year to provide a saving that equaled the overpayment for the previous year of incorrect banding rate. Then next April, I will be paying on the A band as normal.:T

loga

Local Authority: Canterbury
Band before: D
Band now: C
Amount refunded: not yet calculated (not much as we have bought the property 4 month ago and i don't know if they will refund previous owners)
Amount saved: Approx. £18 per month

Having used the tools in this website to make my figures, I completed the form online 3 months ago, i first received a letter from the VO refusing the re assessement. I phoned and explained again to the officer my concerns. Today they called back to say that our band was going from D to C and refund would be available in the 2 weeks.

MANY THANKS

Jill_Evelyn

Hello,
After reading the information on the Money saving expert site, I applied for Council Tax rebanding in March this year - After recieving a letter from the Council Tax office, saying I was out of time but they would review it anyway, I didn't think I would be successful - but my reasons for rebanding were good e.g. other similar houses in our street were banded lower (as checked via your site). The Council Tax officer apparently actually visited our area last month following reciept of a number of claims (fancy that!), and I got a telephone call a week later to say we had been re-banded (From B to A). It took about 3 weeks to get the adjustment notices from from our local council (which I had to email them twice about, and a teleohone call because the calculations were so difficult to follow and they didn't show any 'workings out') - then I had to request the refund. Another three weeks later and I have just got it in my account. £1330. Well worth waiting for, but they don't make it easy, and I feel you should have interest on the money that they took from you illegally. Anyone who is less than a graduate financier (this is not me) would struggle with the whole process (despite helpful templates) and lose out. Following my sucess, I am just about to help other less able people on our street to claim too. I feel that once a banding has been changed, and a refund due, the council should automatically refund you what you have overpaid without your having to request it. What do you think?

John47

Local Borough Council : Windsor and Maidenhead
Council Tax Band before: H
Council Tax Band after: G
Amount refunded: £3345-63
Annual ongoing saving: Not calculated.

I submitted the claim earlier this year after reading the moneysavingexpert article, seeing that our house was the only house in our lane on Band H and using the Nationwide price calculator as advised. This morning I received a cheque in the post for the above amount. The only hitch in the process was filling in a form for the valuation office and agreeing to an inspection of the house.

Many thanks to Martin