Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

lincroft1710 · 8 April 2009 at 6:54PM

jccaird - the council are bound by law to charge council tax on the band shown in th Valuation List. So if you were in Band B at the time the bill was sent out and you were charged at Band B, the council have done nothing wrong. In any case they would argue that even if you didn't get bill, you would know you had to pay CT and should have put money aside. Also I believe any action should have started within 6 years of event.

I'm not being critical of you, just saying you may not be successful.

PS if you know address of previous occupier, you could tell them to contact council as they're entitled to refund.

jccaird · 9 April 2009 at 3:15PM

lincroft1710 wrote: »

jccaird - the council are bound by law to charge council tax on the band shown in th Valuation List. So if you were in Band B at the time the bill was sent out and you were charged at Band B, the council have done nothing wrong. In any case they would argue that even if you didn't get bill, you would know you had to pay CT and should have put money aside. Also I believe any action should have started within 6 years of event.

I'm not being critical of you, just saying you may not be successful.

PS if you know address of previous occupier, you could tell them to contact council as they're entitled to refund.

I had put money aside - then I was victim of a student loan company clerical error and my own personal negligence of not chasing them up so the money put aside was swallowed up by that. Then I got a loan with HFC Bank.......

The court costs are more to do with them not responding to emails when I've requested a delay of payment due to unforeseen circumstances. They refunded one by request but not two others - only another £80 - but worth a shot.

Agreed - the 6 year thing is the only problem about them not acknowledging my residency, but I feel it was such a crucial failiure of the system - ignoring letters every month, not responding to emails, having so few people manning phones that it took an hour to get through and when someone said "we'll look into it" you knew nothing would happen.

I've sent a letter a year to ask about this since then, but no response. It can't harm trying again

lincroft1710 · 9 April 2009 at 6:50PM

jccaird - I'm not that surprised council didn't play ball on 2nd and 3rd payment delays, with some councils it's a struggle getting one.

ant_purley · 10 April 2009 at 7:15PM

band bfore F
After E
Owed 2 years back -600
saving around 300 going forwards.
:beer:

trilbythecat · 12 April 2009 at 2:20PM

Suffolk Coastal District Council
Band Before: C
Band After: B

Savings: £254

Well worth the afternoon spent researching the sale prices and writing the letter. Thanks MSE! You have saved me a couple thousand what with bank charges and other items on your site.

uropachild · 14 April 2009 at 4:43PM

WOOP! WOOP! :j

Local Borough Council: Selby, North Yorkshire
Council Tax Band Before: C
Council Tax Band After: B
Amount refunded: £381.26
Annual saving going forward: ~£200

I contacted the VOA who said that someone would be in touch within a few months. It was actucally only about a month later that someone called to ask details about the house and then a letter arrived a couple of weeks after that saying that we'd been rebanded. I called my local council tax team and they confirmed that the refund would be in my bank by next week.

juliej_2 · 14 April 2009 at 8:26PM

This is the same as me but they are reducing my bill. I would rather have the cashback. Do you know if they are obliged to do this? many thanks, juliej:rotfl:

wardmw wrote: »

Local Borough Council: Hillingdon, Middlesex.
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount refunded: £1,700

Thankfully it was simplicity itself to get this sorted out.

Having looked in the council tax banding website I found out that my semi-detached was in band E whilst the semi-detached next door was in band C.
Since the maisonettes on the other side of my house were also band C I figured there was an issue. It took about four phone calls to find the right group to speak to, but once I did they were very helpful. They explained roughly how long it would take (four to six weeks) and how I would be notified (by letter).

In about five weeks I got a letter explaining that my house was being re-banded to D and a small leaflet explaining that if I owed them money I would have to pay it straight away, but no mention was made of if they owed me. I telephoned them to discuss it and was told that the cheque was in the post, and lo' and behold a couple of days later it appeared!

Thanks Hillingdon for the cash and thanks Martin for the information!

|\/|artin

lincroft1710 · 15 April 2009 at 5:07PM

juliej - if it is a relatively small amount and near start of CT year, many councils will reduce bill rather than refund.

johnt42 · 16 April 2009 at 12:16PM

Local Borough Council: South Staffordshire district Council
Council Tax Band Before:E
Council Tax Band After:D
Amount refunded:£3001·63
Annual saving going forward:£309·16

This was very easy to do - after comparing with neighbouring houses it was just a matter of one phone call followed by a wait of a few weeks.

caxia · 17 April 2009 at 11:15AM

Hi
I wonder if anyone has any comments to make regarding our attempt to get our band F reduced to a band E.
We live on a modern estate in north hertfordshire. Friends in an IDENTICAL house are a band E. When I went through the appeal process as Martin described I was eventually told the disparity dated back to the original owners of the band E house going to a tribunal when the house was first banded (1997). Because we didnt do this within 6 months of moving in we have no right to appeal.

It just seems unfair that 2 completely identical houses on the same estate should be paying different amounts. Oh and other houses int he area which are valued much higher than ours are in band E.

Any thoughts??
Many thanks.

Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

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