Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

JanetS_3

bry 64 I got virtually the same wording from Hertfordshire VOA, that they would not go by the indices on Martin's site. I gave up in June last year but am now restarting it again (someone new has moved in) and I am giving them all the information so they can challenge and hopefully we might get these houses rebanded.

hugh88

Local Borough Council: NDDC
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount refunded: £3,000
Annual saving going forward: £300



I followed Martin's approach and bingo!
No sweat, no hassle, a great result!

[/quote]

fredrogerson

Congleton Borough Council
Cheshire
Band Before D
Band Now C
Rebate £1560
Saving £15 per month

pacey365

Local Borough Council: LEEDS
Council Tax Band Before: C
Council Tax Band After: B
Amount refunded: £830
Annual saving going forward: £100 ish


Having noticed my neighbours were in a different band I wrote a letter 3 weeks ago based around he research suggested on this site i.e 1991 value, neighbours band and valuation

I have now been informed that i am due £830 after 11 years of overpaying - don't hesitate, just do the research and send that letter

In the letter i mentioned that it was our statutary right to ensure the list was kept up to date - i had no problems what so ever

hectorcarol

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:South Somerset Council
Council Tax Band Before: C
Council Tax Band After: B
Amount refunded: £250
Annual saving going forward: £120

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

I thought that this would be difficult as you have to do it within 6 months of moving in a new property usually . Just Do It !!!
We were in the property 14 months, just follow Martins guidelines.
Check out your banding first !!! Get to know the neighbours.
I got the re-banding for 4 of my neighbours. It takes a little while but
THANKYOU Martin for this. I would never have done this if it hadn't been for you. With a family every bit of money counts.

Skieasy

Local Borough Council: Lancaster
Council Tax Band before: G
Council Tax Band After: F
Amount refunded: £3000
Annual saving going forward: £300

Started my appeal in April 2007, received what appeared to be a standard "invalidity notice" the same month, stating that proposal was made outside the legal time limits. However, was promised a review. Early July was advised by the Listing Officer that this was now complete, and that no change to my banding would result. My robust challenge to this finding brought forth the promise of a further review, and a reply "within the next 2 - 3 months" . Four months later in November I chased this up, to be told that the Listing Officer's initial assessment would hold , there would be no right of appeal and there was no intention to review my banding again.

Blood now suitably at boiling point I took this up with the Regional Office at Preston, which eventually led to a visit by a Valuation Officer in December. Six weeks later a result, and confirmation that a lower Tax Band would henceforth apply with a refund back to 1993.:j

Advice to others based on my experience::
1. Follow Martin's instructions carefully, make sure you have reasonable grounds for an appeal.
2. Present your case diligently, supported by appropriate evidence to back up your claim.
3. If convinced of the righteousness of your case, do not take "no" for an answer. The Valuation Office has a legal duty to ensure the correct Band is applied, and may need reminding of this fact.
4. If not offered, be prepared to push for a Tribunal hearing. I was informed that from April 2008 this will contain members of an outside and therefore impartial panel and not, as previously suggested on this Forum, of those solely from the local Valuation Office who came up with the initial finding now being challenged.

Good luck!

mandyhossack

Rochford District Council
Band F reduced to Band E
Refund £2500 plus future saving of £300 per year

Followed Martins guide then made one phone call to valuations office and received letter confirming band change and refund amount within a week.

many thanks to Martin!

stick2000

Local Borough Council: Birmingham
Council Tax Band Before: C
Council Tax Band After: B
Amount refunded: £69.64
Annual saving going forward: £132.05

This is the third time I have tried to post this – and to save me typing this all up a fourth time if it doesn’t work again (even though it changes each time) I’m saving this in word and am going to copy and paste it over.

I’d heard about people challenging their council tax band and had not long moved into our house so I had a look on the VOA website to see what bands the neighbouring properties were in. One side the houses were in band C (with garages) and other side they were in band B (no garages). There are a number of different styles of house on our road and ours is the only one of the small style with a garage.

I decided to appeal the banding as it seemed a simple process and it was highly unlikely that the banding would be increased, as the house next door is a lot bigger than ours and is in band C. I just clicked through the VOA website to make a formal challenge (‘proposal’), put in the council tax payers names and confirmed that I was the council tax payer – done. Thought that would be it and they would look at the house sizes and just send a letter agreeing that we were in the wrong band. Well how wrong was I!

I received a letter from the listing officer stating that they thought we were in the correct band and to sign and return an enclosed form if we agreed. Well I didn’t agree and decided to have a think about what to do next. There wasn’t a date on the letter for when to return the form by.

A week or so later I received a letter from the Valuation Tribunal Service with a hearing date. Everything seemed to get heavy very fast. Unfortunately, dealing with this didn’t come very high on my priority list at the time as I had professional exams amongst other things, so didn’t look at it until the week before the hearing date.

I contacted the listing officer and she said that as I hadn’t been in contact with her she hadn’t prepared the case (supposed to send documents through at least three weeks before). She asked me why I thought we were in the wrong band and I told her about the house next door being a lot larger than ours – “no it isn’t” she snapped at me ….. well we’ll see!

She agreed to arrange for the hearing to be postponed and a new date was set. I wasn’t planning on physically attending the hearing, but was going to do so by written representation. The listing officer said we should correspond with each other before the hearing date to try and reach an agreement.

I received an email from the listing officer a few days later asking me to send her the documentation I had gathered in support of my case and also stating that she believed the decision rested on whether we had a garage or not.

I sent her an email back explaining the styles of houses on our road and sent a load of attachments with it – photos of our house and the house next door (both with garages, completely different in size), copies of calculations from two websites showing the price our property would have been in Q1 of 1991, copies of adverts from rightmove showing the pictures of the different styles of houses and their market value, a copy of the actual price next door paid for their house (from ourproperty website and a lot more than we paid for ours) and a few others.

I never received an acknowledgement email back, but I know it was received as I put a read receipt on. Next thing I know I have a letter in the post saying that they agree our house is in the wrong band and that they’re going to change it from 1993 – result!! (I’ve also contacted the estate agent to get them to tell the previous owner so they can claim the council tax they’ve overpaid too).

All in all took four months.

Sorry for the long post – got a bit carried away!!

wirehair

Council = Hastings Borough
Band was E
Now D
Refund £2,941.99p
Council Tax over £300 a year saving

Followed Martins Guide.

One phone call to valuation office at the end of December.

Thankyou Martin. :j :j :j

Zebedeee

wirehair wrote: »

Council = Hastings Borough
Band was E
Now D
Refund £2,941.99p
Council Tax over £300 a year saving

Followed Martins Guide.

One phone call to valuation office at the end of December.

Thankyou Martin. :j :j :j

Woo! That's great. I'm glad to hear you are getting your refund ok. Now, how to spend it?:)

Zebedeee