Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

is_it_me?

good morning Im not sure Im doing this right but I just had to let everyone know I have had £646.54 back and my band lowered with Isle of wight council. Thank you Martin I love you ! its nice to win a battle and be proved right!xxxxx

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain

LBC: Staffordshire
CTB Before: E
CTB After: D
Amount refunded: £3250
Coverered period 1993 to 2008 (15years)
Annual Saving going forward £300.

kev459

My mum got a rebate of £2950 and got moved from band E to D. Also did the same for my mother-in-law and she got £1500 back and moved from D to C.
Worth a punt if you ask me.

Kev

acp

Local Borough Council: Rushcliffe
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount Refunded: £3036
Annual Saving going forward: £340

Checked other similar properties on my road, all a band lower than mine.
Call to Valuations Office revealed that they the description of my house was totally incorrect. They had 5 beds it only has 3, also they had an additional 2 receptions, additional bathroom and double garage instead of single.
Even though I had been in the property for 13 years they re-assessed it and rebanded it, refund was automatically paid by the local authority.
The whole process took less than 3 weeks and involved one initial phone call, definately worth doing.

Thanks for the advice.:j

theleek

Local Council : Wansbeck District
Council tax band before : C
Council tx band after : B
Amount refunded : One cheque for £770 and 8 months free council tax for the year 2008/9 ( £120 per month )

Easiest claim i have ever made,one call to Valuation office and two weeks later a confirmation of rebanding then the cheque and a saving of approx £960 this year.Decided to accept this as i would rather have the money each month.Other houses in street have also been succesful and is definately worth doing.

pingua

Shrewsbury and atcham. Thanks to everyone who helped me along. We managed to get reduced a band. And thanks to the voa for being nice!!

mkbswimstar

Local Borough Council: Aylesbury Vale District Council
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount refunded: na
Annual saving going forward: £321 per yr

Bought house May 08. Saw on VOA Website that many neighbours with extended properties were paying same as us. Thought I'd try to get reduction, phoned council, for about 30 mins and said why I think ours should be different band, was told prob won't change, gotta send back form they posting me. NEVER filled in that form and today get new council tax bill saying Change to Valuation and a lovely saving of £321 off of annual bill. Very happy!

Apparently the old owners who had it 30 yrs may get money back too!

GREAT NEWS! JUST FOUND OUT OLD OWNERS GOT A £2100 REFUND AND NO COUNCIL TAX FOR YR SO ROUGHLY ANOTHER £900 TOO.

£3000 BACK FOR JUST A PHONE CALL, PLEASE EVERYONE WHO IS THINKING ABOUT THIS, JUST DO IT.

juliedemo

Local Council: West Lothian Council
Council Tax Band Before: F
Council Tax Band After: E
Amount refunded: £541
Annual saving going forward: £335

We bought our house in June 2006 and didn't start the appeal process until March 2008 (after a lot of research - following Martin's article and links). I half expected to get knocked back due to the length of time. The process was very straightforward and the valuation board came out and had a look at the property and agreed that it should be rebanded but that it would need to be confirmed by someone senior and then in writing.

I made the appeal on 30 March and had a letter confirming the rebanding on 18 April.

If in doubt, definitely worth doing, they can only say no.

JohnAnt

Local Borough Council: Haringey, London
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount refunded: £600 -
Annual saving: £327 pa at current rate.
After 30 years of living in London, I knew instinctively that the council tax was too high, but was fobbed off by the council's tax department for several months until an appeal would have been technically invalid, then given the address of the local VOA. And yes, you CAN appeal regardless of the time that has elapsed since you moved in, as long as you can give a reason. The VOA then unhelpfully sent the wrong form, that would have made a claim impossible. It was only when I found this website that I had the tools (neighbourhood check, valuation) to show that my property was over-valued and write an appropriate letter. The VOA officers inspected, first suggesting that they might increase the banding of similar sized flats in the house, but then one of them accidentally let the cat out of the bag and admitted that for more than 50 years the plans for the flat had been seriously wrong - with a completely false floorplan showing an additional bedroom that had never existed. The VOA band change has now been backdated to 1993.
I feel rather envious of my predecessors, who will be able to claim thousands of £s.(I have informed them, in case the council may have 'forgotten' to do so.)
A bit OT, but it may be useful here to point out that - unless you're metered or have had an assessed charge imposed after you've requested individual metering that proves impossible on inspection - the water charge is in fact an arbitrary TAX irrespective of use, index-linked to the old rateable value of your property, and if your property has been over-valued since before 1990, chances are you've been overpaying for water. As soon as you have your band successfully downsized, request a meter. The result - if you are in e.g. an old house converted to flats, that can't be metered - will be to reduce your water bills. After doing that, I've just had my water bill reduced by £50 per year.

JohnAnt

I only moved to my current Haringey property (the subject of my appeal) a couple of years ago.