6 year cap on council tax rebanding rebates in Wales?

Dave300

Hello everyone.

I've recently managed to get the council tax band for my house changed from E to D which saves me about £460 a year. We've been paying tax at the Band E rate since we built the house in 2009 (01/10/2009 to be precise) but the Valuations Office Agency have set the effective date of alteration to Band D as 26th June 2015. According to them this is 6 years before my rebanding was agreed and that is the maximum I'm allowed to claim back. This reduces my potential rebate by about £2000 and I'd really like a proper answer as to why that is being withheld if the VOA was at fault with their initial assessment.  Having spoken to the VOA on the phone I was advised that my route of appeal for this is via my local Welsh Assembly member which doesn't seem the most logical approach. Has anyone been in a similar situation and can offer advise to help here? I can't seem to find the legislation that caps the rebate to a time limit.

Just in case anyone is looking to do the same thing as me, I originally found out that a similar house to mine on the next street was in the lower band. I applied for a reband assessment for my house and was turned down. I challenged the decision and provided details of the other house as evidence but was told this evidence was insufficient. I then mapped my entire housing estate to find all the houses that were in bands D and E, then worked out which ones were closest to the change point between bands D and E. I compared floor areas and numbers of bedrooms etc to prove my case and submitted a large document to the VOA which was finally accepted for review. The whole process took about three months.

lincroft1710

Apparently in 2010 the Welsh Assembly passed a resolution that refunds on overpaid CT resulting from a band reduction could only be backdated for 6 years. All above board and legal, if perhaps seemingly unfair.

Dave300

Thanks for that. I've found the legislation documents now based on your information. It seems that my case doesn't cause any of the problems that the legislation was created to eliminate but I still get lumped in with the 6 year limit anyway. Since my house was built by me and has only ever had one owner it would be the work of minutes to work out the refund but the legislation suggests this is a resource heavy job that councils shouldn't have to waste their time on.

I think I will try to appeal somehow but I can't see me getting far. The VOA have admitted their original valuation was incorrect and the council have pocketed £2000 of my money as a result. To say I can't have it back because their time is better spent elsewhere is a bit rich. My local authority has maximised the increases to our council tax year on year so that we're charged one of the highest rates in the country now.

Dave300

It's been a month since my re-banding was confirmed but I've still had nothing from the council. I rang them up to make sure they were dealing with it and they've told me that they've cancelled my council tax payments until April and will refund me the remainder which is about £800. They're effectively borrowing money off me interest free though and I have no choice about that. Does anyone know where I stand with this?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Pretty sure that is standard practice, the overpayment is first used against the current years charge.

lincroft1710

That is standard procedure, CT is actually due on 1 April but CT payers are allowed to pay over the next 10 or 12 months. In England you can ask the council to refund you rather than offset it against any outstanding CT debt, but I don't know if Wales is the same.