Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

camysmum

I just received a Christmas card from the son of the previous owner saying that he's been successful with his claim, for the years his father overpaid prior to us moving here, for his fathers estate (see my post March 2007). Our council is East Dunbartonshire and they have been great to deal with from the first phone call to 6, now 7 refunds later!

Hope this encourages someone to give it a go.

Thanks again Martin

ballbag_2

Local Borough Council: Wrexham
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount refunded: TBC (roughly £1,000.00
Annual saving going forward:£400 - £500

This is so easy and only took 10 minutes on the internet to get all the evidence I needed to go forward....I read through Martins tips....spent roughly 10 minutes researching the council tax banding in my area...then the price of property and rang the Council the following day.

They sent a person round to evaluate the property who originally said it was banded correctly...however when I presented all my evidence they soon changed their mind! So don't take no for an answer! :T

Martin.....thank you for this fantastic tip! :money:

All the best for 2008. :beer:

mark_johny

I was told that I am not entitled for re-evaluation as I had already been there for more than six months.

jenny60 wrote: »

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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English_Bob

Local Borough Council: Oxford
Council Tax Band Before: F
Council Tax Band After: E
Amount refunded: £2062
Annual saving going forward: £317 pa

easiest two grand i ever made!! and remeber this is tax free (so in fact this is 3 grands worth of work)

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell your neighbours, they will thank you.

david89999

I moved into my new build three bed detached house in August 07. The development (not estate!) has seven identical detached houses, and one identical house but semi detached.
I was banded as an E, which I thought was a bit steep for a house costing 205k, so I did some research using the websites Martin suggests, and discovered the semi was a D, but all the detached were E's. I then checked other houses on the development, and discovered more expensive semi detached houses with more bedrooms were also D. I therefore appealed.
The appeal went through and I received a letter making it quite clear that I was wrong and they were right, that the house had been valued against actual sales of similar houses at the relevant time etc. The letter was worded quite strongly, and finished up by instructing me to complete an enclosed form withdrawing from the appeal process.
I saw no justice in paying more than people with more bedrooms so I requested that my appeal be taken to tribunal. I also made a freedom of information act request that I be furnished with precise details of the houses against which my house been judged. I reminded them that they had 20 days to provide this information.
Coincidentally I then received a phone call telling me the information would be sent as a matter of course prior to the tribunal, which was likely to take up to 6 months to arrange. I made the point that they were committing an offence if they failed to comply with my Freedom of Information request within the time limit.
Within two weeks I had received a letter telling me they had got the band wrong, and blamed it upon the developer telling them it was a 4 bedroom house. (Although they seem to have got it right with the semi detached one)


Key points:
Persevere with your appeal.
Get out for a walk and find houses that may have been used as the ones they use to band yours against. Check their banding etc. on the internet
Use the Freedom of Information Act to get precise information about what they have used.
Don't be put off by the bullying tone of the letter telling you, you have failed.


P.S. I put a note about this through the doors of all those who live in the same style house – guess how many said thanks?
P.P.S why didn't Martin get a new years honour?

JD.LEVER

Recently Recovered £1300.00 From Greater Manchester And Expect A Little More In Cancelled Direct Debits. Can The Water Rates Now Be Challenged For The Same Period As This Was Based On R/v? :t

Derekball

Fylde Borough Council
Previous Band E
New Band D
Backdated to 1st April 1993

First response was pre-printed letter dismissing claims I hadn't made. This was the obvious response to your "Tonight" programme. Letter stated that there were no appeals to the decision. I wrote back to express my disgust that they hadn't read my letter and made a decision of wrong assumptions and asked them to pass the clim forawrd to the Valuations Tribunal Service. It took almost 12 months but SUCCESS. I don't know the extent of the refund but I guess it is around £3300.

Case revolved around price paid for the house in 1993

Thanks and keep up the good work

CSL_2

To get back £3300, is really fantastic - well done!!

Would be really great to see a few success stories from people in the Inner London Boroughs - say - Lewisham,Southwark,Wandsworth,Lambeth etc.


CSL

beingjdc

CSL wrote: »

To get back £3300, is really fantastic - well done!!

Would be really great to see a few success stories from people in the Inner London Boroughs - say - Lewisham,Southwark,Wandsworth,Lambeth etc.


CSL

No reply yet to my appeal form submitted on 10th November to the South London Valuation Office for my property in Southwark, but I will let you know!

Colin_Pates

Council: Melton Borough Council
Previous band : F
New band : E
Refund £977
Saving per year £300

It's not every day you get a nice juicy cheque from the council and I took great pleasure in chasing them for it almost daily, just as they take pleasure in sending court summons for overloloked bill payments! Well done MSE and keep up the good work !