Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

Samsmum29

Hi I have been reading Martin tips for ages but this is the first time I have written a thread!!! But I wanted to say thanks for reminding me about the Council Tax banding. I checked the website that has all our bands on it and saw a house built identically to ours 10 years ago but with two big conservatories added about 4 years ago. Their banding was changed from G to F in 2006 when the house was last sold. I wrote to our local council tax section and pointed out that we were on Band G and they wrote back by reply that they would look into it. Two days later we were told that they were changing our banding to F and would refund back to when we first moved in 10 years ago. What a result!! The refund should amount to about £2k which will go very nicely towards a holidays. Thanks Martin

lynz412

:money: Local Borough Council: Darlington Borough Council
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount refunded: £1246
Annual saving going forward: £390 per year

Used all the letters etc, got letter saying that we were in right band so nothing would be done. As i was heavily pregnant I did no more, then got letter out of the blue with a hearing date for the valuations.

5 days before the hearing date, a lovely man from the valuations dept called me to say that Darlington Borough Council had looked at all the bandings for the new estate where we live (approx 300 houses 4 years old). And that they had decided to reband us from an E to a D.

Got cheque last week. Yipee!!!!

:beer: :j :beer: :j :beer:

marcolo

good old MSE for raising this topic but I have hit a stone wall with my council, city of edinburgh, they say I could only appeal if I had done so within 6 months of being banded in 1993. Loads of similar properties in my street lower banded than me. Seems that I am going to continue to be penalised for the forseeable future unless anyone out there can help

wee_scottie

Council: East Dunbartonshire, Scotland
Council Tax Band: G

Since April 2007, have been putting Martin's proposals to the test, step-by-step, (my file could choke a horse). Council stated that my claim was not valid because of the "six month rule". Attended an Appeal Hearing last week (there were ten cases). We were all rejected under the "six month rule". Is it only English Councils who award successful claims? Where do I go now? :mad:

debbs

Well I did it, moved in last November and got right onto the banding of my property straight away. Had a letter from them stating that my band was correct and that my band was based on actual sales of dwellings in the locality around the valuation date of April 1991. They went on about the house price indices that I used via this site and that the VOA did not consider this as a suitable method for calculating individual property values. They enclosed a withdrawal form for me to sign and return to them. Angered by this I wrote back stating that I still was not happy at this and asked to see the actual sales that they were basing my band on. I had a telephone call in response to this letter asking if they could come round and measure my property, to which I agreed as I had nothing to lose. She came and did all her measurements and said that I'd hear from them in a week or so. I figured at this stage that I'd put up a good fight but was about to lose. It was longer than a week before they got back to me but when the letter arrived I had to keep reading it to make sure I was reading it correctly. They were saying that the band would be going down, I'd won at last and it was well worth the letters that I sent.
Today I have received my council tax bill and a seperate letter telling me to ignore it and a new bill in the correct band would be issued to me. The letter also has a breakdown of the bill since we moved in last November and that they are to refund me £131.65p, Excellent.
I now am on a mission as where I live has only 6 properties, 3 are the same as mine so I campaign to get there's reduced to the same band as mine. The other 2 bungalows are very much smaller but I have just joined their band. So with these 2 being 2 bed with single garages and mine a 4 bed with double garage I now believe that they are due a band reduction too and have spoken to then regarding this. So although I am happy with what I have done, the fight goes on for my 5 neighbours in the hope that I can correct their bands too.

Local Borough Council: Fenland
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount refunded: £131.65
Annual saving going forward: £317.89

Many many thanks Moneysavingexpert, job done.
:money: :j :T :rotfl: :beer:
Think that about sums up how I'm feeling, fingers crossed for the neighbours.
Debb's
Whittlesey, Peterborough

sbradnam

Local Borough Council: Hamnbleton (North Yorks)
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount refunded: Over 400GBP
Annual saving going forward: 300 GBP

30 minutes of my time to follow Martin's steps 1-5, followed by a very brief letter to the Council Tax office, and 3 weeks later, a letter confirming we were in the wrong band. The "reverse valuation" was the key for me, plus the fact that I found out an exact same buld property 2 doors away was in a lower band.

I strongly recommend you all do this simple check..... !!!

SB

tjs10

Council = Cambridge
Band was C
Now B
Refund £464.59
Going forward saving of around £100 a year


After seeing Martin's feature on this I checked up on my banding & found that my 1 bed apartment was classed as Band C along with most of the other apartments on the same development. However, most of the other apartments are 2 or 3 beds so, after going through the other steps Martin suggested I found I was right on the border between Bands B & C.

I had nothing to lose other than the cost of the stamp & so I wrote a letter to my Valuations Officer. They then asked to physically inspect my place to verify it was only a 1 bed as their records (incorrectly) identified it as a 2 bed property.

Once they had seen it for themselves they agreed that the banding should drop & changed it within a week.

I'm still waiting for my refund cheque but, as the error goes back to June 2003, the council have confirmed it is going to be £464.

Well worth that stamp I'd say! Thanks Martin!!!! :j :T

hbee_2

Council = Ashfield DC
Band = B
Now = A
Refund £963.05

When I saw Martins show on the Council Tax rebanding I thought it would be worth a look just to be nosy and see what everyone on our street was paying, little did I know that we were paying more than all of our neighbours. This was a real eye-opener as we live in a 2 bedroom end town house paying council tax on a band B yet the middle and other end were on a band A.

Apart from feeling incensed that we had been over paying it made us feel quite determined that we had a real case for a re-band and a 6 year re-bate.

Anyway we sent a letter, received a form to return detailing all the particulars of the house (all within a week) had a response about 10 days later saying we had been re-banded. And now today a week on we have received our nice not so little cheque.

Many thanks Martin.

Glosmalc

Council = Gloucester City
Band = E
Now = D
Refund = TBC


After looking at the site and following Martin's process a couple of times to make sure of the figures, I wrote to the Gloucester VOA office asking for a review.

Quickly (within a fortnight!) I received a 'notification of alteration to listing' letter saying that they agreed that my property should be in Band D instead of Band E, and they were to send a copy to the local council to action.

The process in my case was VERY straight forward and easy, and am just waiting for confirmation of the amount to be refunded. I think it should be around £1500 and a reduction going forward of around £30.

Thanks to Martin for his clear instructions and other posters for their experiences.

antrouser

Local Borough Council: Vale Royal (Cheshire)
Council Tax Band Before: G
Council Tax Band After: F
Amount refunded: £2,899
Annual saving going forward: £300 approx.

We had always thought our house was in too high a band - it's a 3 bed semi, not a big house, so band G seems OTT. But there are no others like it so we didn't know how to prove our case - we couldn't compare to similar properties as there are none. Our neighbour's house is much bigger with more bedrooms, not that you can tell from the road. Then our neighbour's house sold, the price was published on the Land Registry site, and using the Nationwide calculator we worked out it would have cost about £160K in 1991. £160K was the threshold between bands F and G, and our house is much smaller so must have been worth less and therefore in a lower band than G. We wrote to the Valuation Office in Crewe (who are independent of the council, so seemed a more promising bet) arguing that we had new information which showed the banding was wrong. Three weeks later they replied, agreeing and putting us in band F. A month lafter that the council wrote recalculating our tax; as we have been here over 13 years this came to nearly £3000! We had to write to the council to get the refund cheque (they would just have placed our account 'in credit' otherwise). A bit disappointing not to get interest on the overpayment, given how long they've had our money, but with a refund cheque this big we're not going to argue!