Money Moral Dilemma: Should I give my old neighbour some money for the council tax refund he got us?

polishnina

Definitely give him a gift as a thank you

radio_2

No I wouldn't. If he was paying council tax then either his tenants had moved out or he had evicted them prior to the sale. Do you think if he had received the £8000 rebate in time he would have contacted the past tenants to give them the council tax they overpaid? Remember they were the ones paying all that time not the owner. A box of chocolates and a thank you maybe.

bravesirhugh

Imagine, when you heard about the outcome, that he had saved you £7,500. You'd have been delighted at the "money for nothing" due entirely to your (ex-)neighbour's efforts. I can think of no reason not to follow the example of the other neighbour who gifted him £200 (you could make it £500; why not?) AND add the suggested personal touch of an appreciative note and a bottle of bubbly.

I would do this even if he had benefited from his own £8,000 - which, of course, it seems he didn't.

primrose_penguin

I think your former neighbour did you all a great service, I know he firstly challenged the council tax banding in his own interests, but because of his efforts (something you didn't think to do yourselves) he has saved you a large amount of money and it is ongoing, saving you £45 a month, apart from the £8,000 refund. I personally would definitely give him something, perhaps the same as the other neighbour did with a little thank you card, or a hamper of goodies for him and his family, if he has one.
What a great result, and something Martin mentions regularly on the MSE emails, I tried to challenge mine but had no luck and am paying the same as 2 bed properties in my road, the trouble is you have to be able to compare your property to a similar one in a lower council tax band, but as I am the only cottage with 1 bedroom in my town I had nothing to compare it to except 1 bed flats, and even though I pointed all this out, my challenge failed??

Marvel1

Does his previous tenants get a refund too?

He wasn't bothered what they paid until he started paying it.

asmcc

I think you already feel that you would like to thank him in some way for his time and effort and your financial gain.  Without his work you would still be in the original situation and some show of your appreciation is definitely warranted.  I'm sure you will find a suitable way to do this!

jdeanmagac

One of my neighbours got me £800 back from UU as he challenged them on groundwater going into our river alongside the property rather than drains. That was 150 refunds as we live in an old converted mill (for 15 years) I got him a £50 m&s voucher and a nice card. I've never seen anyone more pleased and it gave my heart joy. 

Sunstreamer

When we sold our house, the people who bought /moved into it put a query in and it was upheld and the band dropped. We were contacted by the council and told about the claim and reduction in banding and we were given a full year free in our new house  (the money we were owed equated to that amount even though we had moved to a higher band again) so maybe the guy who has sold the house has been contacted and given a rebate... or maybe the people who had rented it have been given one ? 

To be fair though, if the guy owned it surely he would have known what band it was even though he wasn't actually paying the bill... maybe he just wasn't bothered about doing something about it until the money was coming out of his own pocket.

Catlucky

It would be a nice gesture to give him something to say thank you. A gift voucher for £100 or so so he could get something for his new home.
He did everyone a favour (maybe unintentionally) but of course it could have gone the other way but he obviously felt strongly that it would work out ok.

Kim_13

He will have benefitted - for the period he was liable for while the property was empty awaiting sale. He won’t be refunded as much as his former tenants, but he can’t have expected anything else when he put the challenge in. I’d buy him a bottle of wine or similar and send a thank you card, but wouldn’t give him any money - if the VOA had lowered his house but dragged their heels over the others, do you think he’d have continued to help you fight it? I’m guessing not, as he was challenging the band because he didn’t want to pay it and not for any other reason. If he always felt the band was wrong, why didn’t he challenge it when he bought the property or suggest to his tenants that he believed the band to be wrong and that he would do the legwork for an appeal if they would submit it under their name (as only the CT payer can challenge.) As no tenant ever did this, it suggests the wrong band was of no concern to him while it wasn’t costing him money.