Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

kt

Local Council: South Bedfordshire
Council Tax Before: F
Council Tax After: E
Amount refunded: £2700

I would like to say a big thankyou to Martin for showing me the way to reclaim council tax charges. It has taken from last October when I first asked for the band to be reduced. They of course said no at first but I persisted and it was going to go before a tribunal. However the week before the planned date, following site of the evidence I was going to appeal on, they withdrew their objection and rebanded us. We have received a massive cheque for £2,700 backdated to 1998 (when a housing corporation development was built closeby).

You have saved me some serious money in the past but this is the most.
THANKYOU MARTIN

Sassy_Saver

Local Borough Council: South Ribble
Council Tax Band Before: C
Council Tax Band After: B
Amount refunded: £837
Annual saving going forward: £165.14

:j And it was easy peasy!!

Simply rang the valuations office - after discovering all my neighbours were paying less - and got 6 years worth of refunds.

:TThank you Martin - we'll be paying a little chunk off the mortgage with the refund...

Trevor_0453

Local Council: Three Rivers
Council Tax Before: F
Council Tax After: E
Amount refunded: £2,300

Our neighbour in an identical property appealed against her banding after getting all your excellent information from your site. This resulted in her getting her band reduced down, which automatically trigggered our band to be reduced also. Both houses were built in 1997.

We have just received notification of a £300 a year reduction for 2008-2009 and better still a £2,300 refund for last 10 years overpayment.
:j :j :j

We had thought about appealing in the past but were concerned that we may have been put into a higher band.

Can't thank you enough for all the expert help and advice you give.

THANKS AGAIN MARTIN
:beer:

kcred2

Local Borough Council: Pendle
Council Tax Band Before: C
Council Tax Band After: B
Amount refunded: £266
Annual saving going forward: £300

Thanks for the information on how to do this, it was really easy!

The council didn't oppose anything or make it difficult, we had a cheque within 4 weeks of emailing them.

I'd recommend it. The lady living here before us was in the house for 35 years imagine how much she's entitled to?!?!?!

K x

frankx

:T Thanks to Martin's:money: tips:T .
Have had my band reduced from F to E at RBK, surrey.

It has taken me about a year and a half but finally I was rebanded. Do not give up, I was told NO many times but I kept making my point and asked for my case to be assessed by someone else. The first thing that happened was that my property was compared to a totally different area as there were no sales in my road in the rebanding year. Unfortunately the area that was compared to is a really different calibre area so they had to make allowances and use a different technique.

Having said that I comfront many other issues.
They have not yet sent me a refund.
They only went back to 1997 (they said "our computer system was replaced in 1997"... :mad: what a naff lame excuse:mad: ).
They never included the GLC refund for any years (yes this is also banded).
I have rung RBK and they are looking into these issues.
Also they have paid themselves the whole years' Council Tax in advance without my permission, I would prefer that money was in my high interest account.

I shall post again with more details, but watch out :rolleyes: and check these details even if you succeed.

green10

Cotswold District Council
Council Tax Band Before D
Council Tax Band After C
Amount Saved £917.73

Many thanks Martin. Very easy, no proplems. A quick check on banding on the properties in the area and soon found out was the only one paying the wrong band so a quick phone call and sorted. It took a few weeks but they were very helpful. No money back in cash but a credit on this years Council Tax.
This makes me a very happy bunny, thanks:j

suecoo66

Not sure if this is the right thread but just wanted to share my experience of the council tax valuation appeal.
Basildon Council
Band D

I downsized my property last year and moved from a band B property (ok it was probably undervalued) 3 bed semi which sold for £189k
I moved to a 3 bed end of terrace about a mile away which we bought for £177k which was band D.
After investigation my feeling was that the whole estate had been wrongly banded when built in the year 1999/2000.
I prepared what I considered to be a good case with evidence of properites built in 1991 and there value and band in the present day, these properties were compariable with my own and were lower bands. I considered it to be fair that my property be placed in band C.
I went along to the hearing and the valuation officer was badly prepared and had no photos of the properites he used for his evidence. He argued that I couldnt use the Nationwide Building Society as evidence of values in April 91 as it was inaccurate, even though he used it himself!
I was convinced the panel would decide in my favour as he was so badly prepared.The panel decided not to make a decision and adjourned to another date!
The date for the next hearing was set for a few months later, then a week before the hearing date I had been notified of I contacted the valuation officer and asked why he hadn't submitted his evidence to me. He claimed that the hearing date was not the date I had been notified of! Turns out there was a complete mix up wiv the dates so yet again I had to fix another date.
I went along again with what I considered to be clear and simple but good evidence. I had included photos of houses and prices, postcodes etc. I also included a floor plan of my own property provided by the developer.
The valuation officer again stated that Nationwide was not good evidence and he had access to prices of houses sold in 91 that I wasn't able to otain.
He argued that the evidence of houses I gave were in areas not as good as my own even though some were literally just across the road!
I argued that my previous property a mile away had just been rebanded to a band C after extensive improvements we had made before we sold. Yet my new property with less bathrooms and less sq ft. was a higher band. He also argued that newer property was worth far more because they are built with better materials and are better insulated etc. yet anyone who buys property knows that older property is better built than newer and is often worth more especially if there is bigger gardens ( apparently your not allowed to include a bigger garden as evidence?).
Anyway the decision was in the valuation officers favour because the panel felt that his evidence was more reliable as he was able to give details of sq meters of his properties and maps etc of where the properties were. I had given postcodes of the properites which were obviously in close proximity!
The worst part is when the panel went off to discuss the valuation officer told me that he had had trouble decididing if my property was a band C!!
I was gobsmacked when I got the decision in the post and feel hard done by.

:mad:

SingyB

Local Borough Council: Northampton Borough Council
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount refunded: £1808.64
Annual saving going forward: Approx £300

I followed all the instructions, and saw that there were at least 4 houses in my road that were the same size, and bigger (I've got a single garage, one of the others had a double!). We've lived here 7 years, so I figured it would be worth my while

It has taken about two months from start to finish, and only cost me printing, paper and an initial stamp.

NBC initially deducted the amount from this years bill, and left me £500 in credit, but said I could claim the payment, which I have done, cheque is now securely in the bank!

One thing of note was to the previous occupants. They also got a reduction for the time they lived in our house, by reducing their council tax. They didn't appear to have a payment offered (for some reason the council let us know that as well!!)

THANK-YOU!


:T :j

solomonthewhite

Council: South Ribble Borough Council

Original Banding: C

Final Banding: B

Amount refunded: £1539 :j

Future annual saving £120

Occupation date: July 1990 to present

I sent one email to the valuations officer asking for the correction. (Only 5 lines long)
I received around 5 different letters from various places until the final one saying that my challenge had been successful and they had corrected the register.
Other than the original email there were no phone calls or other forms of contact with anyone by myself, it just seemed to start the whole process rolling until the cheque dropped on to my mat.
Process time approx 3months

:beer:
Cheers Martin

Keevil

Council: West Wiltshire
Original Banding: F
New Banding:E
Amount Refunded £340
Occupation date: Feb 2007 - date

I first rang about rebanding and received a standard letter explaining why I was in the correct banding.
I then requested the form to fill out to make an appeal against my banding but was told this was invalidly made as I had lived there for more than 6 months (how are we supposed to know that is a rule?) so I then set about a very long process of checking all the bandings in my road and the adjacent one. I found a website that gave me an approximate value of all the houses and I then went on the suggested site of Nationwide to do a calculation for 1991. I found another site (HBOS) which soes the same and for each property did an average price for 1991. All my calcualtions matched theirs for all houses apart from my house. I sent all paperwork and quoted from the VOA site which says they have a duty to ensure houses are in the correct banding. 2 months later rebate and a rebanding. It pays to stick with it. Thanks Martin.