Success Story - Council tax band alteration and refund received

scratchymonkey

Please can we share a recent success story relating to Council Tax reclaim for being in too high a band.  Last summer, following a chance conversation with a friend when we discovered she was in a lower band to us in a similar house on the same, small housing estate, we followed Martin's guidance and challenged our council tax band.  It was relatively easy, just took a bit of time for research and gathering evidence but it was worth it because the Valuation Office accepted our arguments and our council tax band was lowered from a band E to a band D.  This also resulted in a refund of overpaid council tax of over £5,500 and, combined with not having to pay any council tax for the rest of this financial year, means we are just over £7,000 in pocket. 

We decided to share the story of our success with our neighbours and several, but sadly not all of them, were successful in their claims receiving similar amounts of refund.  Even the former Mayor of the borough was successful in reducing his council tax band.  Collectively, to date,  the neighbourhood has received in excess of  a £30,000 refund which is great for us, but perhaps not so good for the local council finance officer.    This figure is expected to rise further because some of the refunds are still to come through.  I only wish my hourly rate of pay at work could match the achievement in terms of value for time input. 

If anyone is considering challenging their council tax bands, we would say it is worth spending the time doing some research and, if you think you have a case, give it a try.  You might end up like us, receiving a hefty refund of overpayment and reduced bills going forward. 

A big "thank you"  must be said to Martin and the team for their useful guidance on the website, I doubt we would have challenged the banding without reference to your guidance which gave us the confidence to pursue a challenge. 

Good luck to anyone else seeking to challenge a council tax banding, we hope you are successful as we were. 

lincroft1710

scratchymonkey said:

Collectively, to date,  the neighbourhood has received in excess of  a £30,000 refund which is great for us, but perhaps not so good for the local council finance officer.    This figure is expected to rise further because some of the refunds are still to come through.  

It will just mean that the council will put an extra 50 pence (or less) on next year's CT bills. 

arklelover

Hurray. Out of the blue we have received £8k from our Council for overpaid council tax from 1998-2023.
The Council did not explain why we were due this! We received a load of council tax revisions, year by year, and said how we could claim. Absolutely no indication as to why we were due this refund!
Anyway, monies are now in the bank.