Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

Graham012

Local Borough Council: Woking
Council Tax Band Before: D
Council Tax Band After: C
Amount refunded: £270
Annual saving going forward: £175

I live at the end of a row of 5 terraced houses.
I only moved in 2 years ago.

After checking the VOA site I saw that the other 4 houses were band C and I was band D.


I had passed the 'neighbours' check but on further checking I failed the 1991 'price' check. But I decided to press ahead anyway.


I called the (very nice) people at the local valuations office, who took a few details about my house and said they would be in touch.


10 days later I received a letter from them informing me of my new band and 1 day later a letter from my council informing me of my refund.


All in all a very quick, easy and painless process.


Thank you Martin for the advice, I would never have thought to check such details about my property.

Graham

Lyndahayes

Local Borough Council: Kettering
Council Tax Band Before: C
Council Tax Band After: B
Amount refunded: Not sure yet- but should be about £500
Annual saving going forward: £153.27

I looked on the chart here and found out my tax band was one higher than exact houses in the same line of terraced houses. I simply made the call and 2 weeks later, I got a letter saying the council has decided to change the banding from C to B based on the 1991 value! There is one other house in the wrong band and I might let them know too! I am amazed how easy it was to look into. Please do it if it looks even slightly likely that you are being charged too much.

:money:Thanks so much again! :j

Lynz x x x

alanderek

Local Borough Council: Stroud District Council
Council Tax Band Before: F
Council Tax Band After: E
Amount refunded: £2,215.91


I followed Martin's instructions - my neighbours, in similar dwellings, all built at the same time as a small development were all band E, and yet my property was band F.

I checked sales going back 10 years or so, and the 1993 equivalent prices also fell into band E.

I sent an e-mail to the valuation officer challenging my banding, and he replied that I would hear something within 2 months. A week later I heard my banding was reduced to E and that the local council would be informed so they could provide a new bill. The information arrived from the Council a week later, and the refund was in my account within 2 working days!

A great result (and an efficient Council and Valuations Office).

Thanks Martin :beer:

blustuf

Local Borough Council: Lewes District
Council Tax Band Before:D
Council Tax Band After:B
Amount refunded: £2000+
Annual saving going forward:£366

Did as per your advice, got dropped one band to start with, found 4 more similar properties near me in band B via the voa site, appealed and got dropped another band.
Thankyou so much.
YABBA DABBA DOOO
So does any one know how we stand for claiming back interest on this money that our councils have wrongly had the benefit of for ten years or so?

Now for the Alliance and Leicester..................................

lincroft1710

blustuf - the good news: well done for obtaining 2 band drop. The bad news: you will not receive any interest from council on overpayment as CT law does not make provision for such payment.

Wessex_Wanderer

Local council - Winchester
Band before - F
Band after - E
Refund - £2988.46
Savings going forward - £300 a year

Followed the steps in the original process. 1 e-mail and 6 weeks later and a cheque for £2988.46 has just arrived!

Time for a holiday!:beer:

Skiboot

I used Martin's methodology and achieved the following:
High Peak Borough Council
Original Band-E
New Band-D
Amount Refunded-£3,551
Ongoing Saving-£335 per annum

I am going to have a go at getting Statutory Interest paid on the refund as the mistake was made by the Valuation Office when Council Tax was introduced. I will let you know how I get on with this.

Thanks to Martin and his team-keep up the good work!!

lincroft1710

Skiboot - Council Tax law makes no provision for any payment by VOA or council of interest on monies overpaid by taxpayers where a CT band is reduced.

Unless VOA were aware or made aware your band was definitely wrong and deliberately and purposely did nothing about it for several years, you haven't a chance of getting any interest refunded. Even if this were the case (which would be very unusual) it would be difficult for you to prove and even if you could prove this, any interest paid by VOA would be totally at their discretion.

For the final 12 years of my time with VOA I was dealing with CT appeals, and I only ever heard of one case where interest paid by VOA to taxpayer and it wasn't even in my office.

shorts372

Excellent advice and a really straightforward process

Local Borough Council:Surrey Heath
Council Tax Band Before:G
Council Tax Band After:F
Amount refunded:£1188!
Annual saving going forward:Approximately £300

For the price of a stamp and about half an hour's research on the Internet I obtained 4 years worth of refunds! From sending my letter to receiving my refund took under a month.

One point though the council initially reduced my bill for this financial year by the amount they owed rather than directly refund the amount. One phone call later and within a week my account was credited with the full amount they owed me.

Mils_2

Hi. I came across this on the moneysavingexpert website and thought I'd check our banding - different to neighbours and contacted valuation office - success!

Local Borough Council: Wycombe District Council
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount refunded: £1,700
Annual saving going forward: £330

Thanks for this - wouldn't have noticed if I wasn't having a look at this site. We're thinking of moving soon so may have missed the opportunity to claim!

Just to say, it was a really straightforward process - except valuation office's website says you can ask for them to review if you fall into certain criteria - we didn't but I wrote in anyway and they sent me back a form to complete - with accompanying notes which said that if we don't fall into the criteria then don't complete the form (we didn't but still completed the form!) and it worked. So still persist!