Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

Ginger_Lady_2

(Dudley, Band B to Band A, Refund of £867 and no council tax payments for the rest of the year!) Thanks Martin for bringing this to our attention.When we checked our neighbours banding we found that some of them were on a lower band than ours. We applied for rebanding but were denied. We lodged an appeal and received written notification that the appeal was going ahead but a few days later we received a phonecall to say that we would lose the appeal so we should withdraw it. The next day the forms arrived for us to sign saying we would withdraw our appeal, we NEVER sent them back. A few months later we received a letter saying our banding would be changed from B to A and we didn't need to go to a tribunal. Within a month we had received a refund and didn't have to pay council tax for the rest of the year! So we would advise others not to allow someone talk you into not appealing. If we had signed those forms we would still be paying more than necessary and would never have got the refund we were intitled to!

horsechestnut

Local Council; Liverpool
Council Tax Band D
Council Tax Band now C

horsechestnut

Local Council; Liverpool
Council Tax Band D
Council Tax Band now C
Refund (being processed) £1,007.52p
Annual Savings £100
Time covered 14years

I followed MSE guidelines and wrote to the Council on 18/09/2007.

When the assessor came she said that several people in the area had requested a review and that they had all been re-classified. We are in a group of small houses that were built in the early 1950's in an area of larger houses built in the 1930's.
I always felt that it was unfair that I should pay the same as a larger house next door, but didn't know how to do it.
So thank you MSE:T

Mrs_A_Davis

MSE_Archna wrote: »

This thread is especially for reporting your successes in getting your council tax rebanded plus refunds.

The aim is to show others that it works.

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

Local Borough Council:Trafford
Council Tax Band Before:C
Council Tax Band After:B
Amount refunded:£790
Annual saving going forward:£70

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

After reading you article I applied for a refund on my house that I sold in 2004, which I had owned for 9 years. Only a couple of letters later and I got back £790 and reduced the bill for the new owner (who never even thanked me!!) I helped my neighbour get back £1,000 too. But a BIG thank you to Martin. I follow all your tips now.

jeaniea

Local Borough Council: Bristol City Council
Council Tax Band Before: D
Council Tax Band After: C
Amount refunded: 1,600
Annual saving going forward: approx 150

It really was easy. Checked our banding on VOA websire, saw neighbours houses were lower banding. Rang them to query and explained why I thought our banding was wrong. Approx 2-3 months later, just as I was thinking of reminding them, received a letter confirming they agreed change and it had been backdated to 1993.

A week later cheques for $1400 issued and no more council tax to pay this year!

MSE, Many thanks for the advise, it really will be a good Christmas!

holidayfund2012

I made a claim a few months ago to my local borough council (crewe and nantwich). I initially wrote to them, having followed all the advice given about the process. I received a letter back saying that I should have made a claim within 6 months of moving into the property and that they would investigate my claim. I wrote back with further information about house prices and banding locally and also said that I had only recently been made aware of the fact that you could challenge the banding. Almost all the houses in my street and surrounding streets are banded at B, while I was a C. I have just received a cheque from the borough council for just under £500, notification of my banding change and will make an annual saving from now on of just over £300, so thank you very much!:j

stephenhodgkiss

Local Borough Council: Newcastle City Council
Council Tax Band Before: B
Council Tax Band After: A
Amount refunded: £600
Annual saving going forward: £300

I have only lived in the property just over year. However, the 2 flats above me where the landlord and landlady live, had their tax back-dated to 1993. Brilliant.

jenny60

Local Borough Council: Boston Borough Council
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount refunded: £1700+ to us and £245 to the previous owner
Annual saving going forward: £360

Our relatively modest three bed bungalow was rated 'E' although other much larger properties (and therefore more valuable) were discovered to also be an 'E' - one is a five bed, double garage property.

The Martyn Lewis website (recommended by a friend) and the tv programme were a wake up call to apply for a rebanding - although we had lived in the property more than 6 months and were in law not eligible to appeal.

We wrote to the Valuation Office, listing other properties/bands/ approximate size of property and approximate values according to recent sales in the area and requested a re-valuation.

We had an acknowledgement within 10 days and a rebanding within 20 days We felt 'D' was fair.

Boston Borough Council sent us a backdated cheque (to 1999 when we moved here) for £1,700+ : and, as the revaluation was actually backdated to 1993 we notified the previous owner (who lives nearby) and she too got a rebate from BBC of approximately £245.

thank you Martyn and to all the folks who made these postings which encouraged us to give it a go. :T
Jenny60

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Harriet_Liberty

Council: West Devon
Council tax band before: D
Council tax band after: B
Refund: £2.696.81

I thought we were in the right band because we bought our place in 1991 around the time the bands were decided - that was until I checked my neighbours - result reduction by 2 bands and some rally useful money back
Thank you to Martin:T
:j :j :j :j :j :j

keith234

great advice