Can I trust a Company called Household Claims

RobbieR00

Hello all,

We have just been visited by a rep from a company called "Household Claims" with a very convincing back-story and website about re-banding our council tax and getting a refund. They asked for an upfront fee of £175 (I assume to cover a surveyors fee), and then a percentage of any refund we get.

They said they had already done a lot of the work via checking household valuations, meeting VOA guidelines and using satellite imaging to check the size of our property, and would have only contacted us if they were certain we would get the refund.

Can anyone else let us know if we can actually trust this company, or report a success story from using Household claims? Their website is pretty convincing with various "customer" comments. However another internet search brought up an old company called "Reband UK" and a dubious director called Darrell Jack Henry.

Any advise/comments gratefully accepted before we proceed. Our own investigations do suggest we are in the wrong band.

Thanks.

roonaldo

you can try and and reband council tax yourself, do you really dont need to pay someone to fill in a form for you.. as the company, what a loaf of bull s--t

lincroft1710

If you read either of the 2 Council Tax threads, you will see hundreds of success stories achieved by the taxpayers themselves. As roonaldo has said it's simple enough to do yourself.

PlutoinCapricorn

MSE can show you how to reclaim Council Tax. If you have a good case, you do not need a third party to claim on your behalf and take some of the refund.

malcumms7898

Just saw about this on "Rip Off Britain" the other day. You can easily reband your council tax yourself, probably in a matter of minutes, and you don't need to pay a company huge fees to do it. What this company is doing is bordering on fraud (although not technically illegal, I think), and similar companies have been in trouble with the law for trying to charge people money for something they can easily do themselves. I would steer clear and just change your tax band yourself, if it needs changing.

leesh34

Hi there,
I have just received a call from the same people 'Household Claims' they knew a lot of details about me and my home already and tried to send somebody round tomorrow. I was told most of the properties in my street are band A and I am in band B and he said I should get around £450 back? if there is a charge it wouldn't be worth it, would it. Also they want to send an agent to my home, is this common place?
Thanks

oxfordrocks

Search main site for Council tax.

The first result will be Martin's guide to re-banding.

You can do it for free.