Council Tax. Are You Paying More Than Your Neighbours? Check It Out

mike55_2

Maisie wrote:

Mike. Just follow the screen. Address and postcode is fine.

Good luck.


Maisie

thanks Maisie. i seem to be getting lost somewhere but i'll keep on trying

mike

Maisie

asandwhen wrote:

Just wanted to add my thanks to maisie (and north herts council) - Have now had my rebait (helped over xmas) 200 smackers to add to my piggy!!

Wow! That's great asand when. Glad you benefited from the post and hope many other MSE's do too.

£200 is a lot of money and you will pay less throughout the year. Well done!

mike55_2

mike55 wrote:

thanks Maisie. i seem to be getting lost somewhere but i'll keep on trying

mike

i'm still lost so can i be doing something wrong?

i tried home and work and it doesn't recognise either

indiegirl_2

Just to update. I used the VOA site to register my 'discontent' (that's a mild word!) at my neighbours being in a band lower than me (and having a bigger house/land area!). This was at the end of October. At first, my local VOA (Aylesbury, even though I live in Milton Keynes) fobbed me off, telling me that I needed to have registered my rebanding request within 6mths of moving into the property. I wrote back, and telephoned them but they wouldn't officially reband it. I thought all was lost.

Don't be put off by their snotty letters - at the bottom of mine, I spied the words: "I will review the situation to ensure that the banding is fair" (which mine clearly wasn't)... and I heard nothing more.

Two weeks ago, I received a re-banding notification through the post - I've been dropped from a C to a B and am currently in credit with this year's tax - wahoo!

So the moral of my tale is - request a reband if your neighbours are lower than you - and don't be put off by your snooty VOA offices!

megsykins

OK, I'm going to show my ignorance here but I'm a bit confused:

I looked up my old house, it came up with only 5 houses (out of a very long road) which weren't immeadiate neighbours (numbers 104, 106, 128 and 130 when we were no 62!) I know not many houses round there paid Council Tax cos mainly students, so are the neighbours just not listed?
Also, the site said we were 'SHOP AND PREMISES', but we were renting the flat above the shop only, although the landlord used the garage as his office. Will this have made any difference to our payments? We were band A. We moved Aug 05. If we paid wrong, can we claim? The landlord did all the paperwork and we gave him the money.

Then I looked up our new house out of curiousity (we don't pay CT anyway) and noticed it says next-door is a betting shop. It's not, it's two flats. Should I tell the neighbours to check theyre paying correct? One flat is student-occupied, the other isn't.

Also, for my parents' postcode it says "No assessments could be found for the Post Code that you have supplied" What does that mean?!

Am I worrying about nothing?

megsykins

Forget that, I've worked it out!!

But it says we were a composite property when we weren't. Cos we were Band A shall I just leave it cos can't go lower.

daveboy

I've just discovered this thread and seems an extremely helpful one...a big hitter when it comes to saving £s.

I'm also in Band A but if I move this thread will help.

As per the post above I've entered some addresses and it comes back with no response.

Great to see the big savings some have made mind you.

Noddle_2

A chance conversation with the neighbours and I discovered we were on a higher band to them. My husband had lived in the terrace house for 7 years. After appealing we recieved a chq for £1400 and have not had to pay council tax for a year. We appealed on line (it says that you need to appeal within 6 months of moving in, but I had seem something on the news about case law on this, so we appealed anyway and won. Some came and looked round the house to check it out. Apparently the neighbours all appealed years before and won, before my husband moved in. I have told my parents about this, and they are going through appeal now (as they were on a higher band too, and the house has been altered for a disabled person). It costs nothing!

$17mma

Ok let me just check to make sure that I am doing this correct.

From thehome page I o into rating lists? is that correct?
Then put my post code in? Is that correct?

It keeps saying postcode not recognised

innovate

I think I tried it the same way as you at first, $17emma - didn't work for me either.

This works:
- on home page, click Council Tax at the top
- then click on the graphic which says "council tax list england and wales"
- at the bottom on the next page, click the Go button
- select your billing authority (=council) on the next screen
- then just enter the street name on the next page and click Go

This gives me the complete list of our road - hope this works for you as well