Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

deborahstuart

Local Borough Council HYNDBURN
Council Tax Band Before F
Council Tax Band After E
Amount Refunded £3050

Thanks Martin.

I followed your instructions and went on the VAO website to look for my parents banding. It took me days to find the address. Not only had Hyndburn Council got the wrong post code, but also the wrong address. I submitted a claim and wasnt long before they contacted my parents. Soon after they received a nice cheque. Cant understand how they got the wrong post code and address?

Any way thanks.

u123072

Local Borough Council: Derby City
Council Tax Band Before: D
Council Tax Band After: C
Amount refunded: ~£1300
Annual saving going forward: ~£100

I received a letter from the VOA today informing me that my band had been downgraded effective from 1 April 1993. I've not heard anything from the council yet - I bet they hate this site!

I followed the clear advice given. I investigated my neighbours bands and discovered either side and across the road were a band lower for very similar sized - though not identical - houses. I then wrote to the VOA with this "evidence" who sent me a simple form to fill in. Within a week they must have sent somebody out to have a look and then decided I was right - amazing.

Thanks MSE
:beer:

sprokit

Not had a result as yet - went through the site info and checked - we are B as are many on our street - but others identical (plus our neightbour) is A.

Been there since before the Poll tax started and know that when we bought the house in 89 it was well below the £40,000 threshold. Took it up politely with the authorities to be told our house was obviously a modernised one....NO ...it was basic council house with no frills. The asked why we had never queried it before - so I told them that we had wrongly assumed that it had been properly assessed and had gone up in price that much in the 2 years since buying it (despite having done nothing to the property). Took a lot of talking and they finally brought out the forms to fill in - should hear something back in about 2 months (her last comment was, "we are really busy with this at the moment, and if your house is reduced the others will be done automatically"......can't see them doing that somehow!!!!!)

will wait and see

GarryT_2

I have just got the council tax doen from E to D and am waiting for the cheque!

Not only did I use other property as an example of why I thought the banding was wrong, I supported this with water rates from my old house that were higher but this was in band D and the fact I sold it for more than my current house.

Anything to support and help the application to get your money back!

geoffrey.cowan

I live in monmouthshire in south wales and I was band E and have just been re banded to a D from 1993 to 2003 and am going to a trbunial in April to keep my band at D from 2003 onword.Geoff.:money:

poorBIGspender

We are LB Merton, after following the advice and instructions on the site we had our banding changed, we still believe it should have been two bands lower but they only did one. It did take about 9 weeks, including many reminders and phone calls but at the end of it we recieved a back dated payment of £1800!!

Thank you Martin!!:T :T

:money:

sammy48_2

Thanks to Martin and this great website we got a payment of £2500 and will be paying £300 a year less in Council Tax in the coming year.

Charnwood Borough Council - successfully downgraded from Band G to Band F.
I'd always thought we were overpaying, but it was quite difficult (small village) to compare properties, but following the instructions on this website I found that a house that was for sale in the village at the same time and same price as the one we bought was banded F, and the Nationwide house price calculator also made us band F in 1991. I reported this to the Valuation Office by phone (didn't even have to put it in writing) and 2/3 weeks later they sent an official rebanding letter - down to F band. We then got payment back from the local council - fantastic and thanks again.
I must say that the Valuation Office didn't put up any fight at all!

Monstaswifey

Followed all the steps and the evidence proved I should be band C at an absolute maximum but Leicester VOA have written to say the Nationwide Calulator should not be relied upon as they do not consider it accurate and my evidence of all the larger houses on our street does not count and we remain band D along with the massive houses!

The fact that the Land Reg amount what I bought it for is £20k over as we got cashback from Barratts doesn't appear to matter either so beware everyone buying a new home and accepting cashback deals - this may have you paying higher Council Tax FOREVER!

As I have been there over 6 monthd and my orginal query was not dealt with by my local council when I moved in - I have no right to appeal!!!

Really not a happy bunny

lil19

hi everyone,
i been writing to the local council and the VOA, i also researched the voa site for tax banding, and it seems whenever a house is sold on my estate that they up the coucil tax band to b due to improvements ( they re excouncil terraced houses and av price in 91 was £26.00-33.000) can they actually do that? Mine went from an A to a b when i bought it last year
i had a look at the voa site and the year when it became effective is then blank. but location has not changed? the houses were still the same value in 1991. is this correct? most of the the houses are band a and a third are now band b due to re sale. anyone got any ideas for that? or proof that its wrong one way or the other

thanks lil

david_cardiff_2

In Wales of course, we got revalued in 2005 (based on April 2003 values) so got shafted before the Government got scared and delayed doing the same in England. [Incidentally, have you noticed how Westminster tries out wacky ideas on Wales and Scotland first? Remember the poll tax? Local government reorganisation? Rebanding? All here first! :j ]

Anyway, I successfully challenged my banding here in Cardiff and saved £200 per annum! It's worth remembering that you can challenge your band up to six months after you become responsible for council tax.

It was hassle-free - I simply got a form from the valuation office, noted the price I paid in December 2006, trawled a couple of house price websites to find the house price inflation in Cardiff since April 2003, doublechecked some similar houses nearby from the banding websites, did a simple calculation to demonstrate that had my house been built in 2003 it would have been in band F not G. The valuation office sent an acknowledgement letter then a few weeks letter a revaluation letter, followed a couple of months later by Cardiff's cheaper council tax bill. Hurrah!

Best of all I notified my nearest neighbours so they could get their bids in before the six month deadline.

Try it, it's got to be worth it, remember the valuation date, 2003 in Wales, 1991 in England!

David