Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories
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After seeing Martin Lewis discuss the council tax banding systems and its flaws, I decided to check mine as I thought it could be wrong. I read the advice on the website and set about my own investigation. Firstly, I looked up my street on the government site to see what band all the houses in my street were listed under. I noticed that houses of a similar size and composition to mine were on a lower band than me. I then looked up all the sold prices for all the houses in my street on the land registry. As the site only listed sold prices as far back as 1995, I entered all prices and dates of sale into the retrospective calculator on the MSE site and noted what band the property should have been on according to each price. For 79% of the houses, this system indicated that they were correctly banded. My house was 1 of 5 that appeared to be incorrectly banded. Using this correlation as supporting evidence I submitted my research to the VOA and requested a reassessment. After 6 weeks I received a reply stating that my council tax band had been reduced. Obviously I was delighted and promptly informed my neighbours whom I thought had a strong case of reducing their band; one of them may have been overpaying for 25 years. A few days later I received a revised council tax bill whereby I will be paying less council tax from now on.
The council authority is East Dorset, re-banded from F to E, refund due £1096.46 (owned house for 3 years), annual saving 2018/19 £434.52.
Well worth the effort and it only took 6 weeks to resolve, thanks to MSE, VOA and EDDC.0 -
Local Borough Council: Dover District
Council Tax Band Before: F
Council Tax Band After: E
Amount refunded: £5,744.09
Annual saving going forward: £378
Have been an avid Martin Lewis follower for many years and have done all the changing of utilities, bank accounts etc etc etc over the years (although because I lost my email address and did not change it on this forum I had to rejoin as a newbie
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Having lived in the same house for over 20 years I don't know why I did not get round to doing this before. What was helpful was that my house and the neighbours on either side were all built at the same time and were virtually identical save for the fact that the neighbours are parallel to the road while mine is 'end on' giving the false impression of being a larger property. the neighbours are both band E and yet we have always been band F.
Did the whole process on line in about 15 minutes with the VOA who duly responded and promised they would be back in touch within 2 months. They came back by email agreeing in the drop in one banding and a week later I was emailed by the local authority informing me that my council tax account was now in credit ....... substantially in credit.
I have now applied on line for a refund which was just another 5 mins well spent - expect to receive the cash in the bank in the next week or so.
This has to be the most lucrative money saving exercise that I have undertaken ....... so far! :T0 -
Torridge District Council
Previous Band E
New Band D
Refund £1250
Saving £400/Year.
Far easier and quicker than expected valuation service regraded within three weeks, council sent out new details within week. Contacted council to obtain repayment as lump sum instead of reduction in rate, received money in two days.0 -
Just had confirmation from MK Council.
We were the only high band property in our street, we are now Band D along with our neighbours.
Refund is on its way dating back 16 years with a value of £5400 :j
Thank you MSE.
If you have not checked yours, its definitely worth a try!!0 -
Firstly thank you for taking the time of reading my post and any help or advice you could offer I will greatly appreciate . Like many people we DH and I are trying to see if we are on a higher C. Tax band than we should be. Backround is we purchased a new build property in 2001 on an estate typically made up of 3-5 detached bedroom houses. We were given the Tax Band of E worked out i presume from houses in our area back in the 1990's. We have since found out there is one property on our estate that is identical to ours and although purchased for the same price back in 2001 when sold most recently in 2015 it was considerably lower than Zoopla are estimating ours to be worth despite not having any renovations done to the property. Whilst I am aware the Zoopla site only offers an estimated price would this in anyway help with our cause or could you advise on how to challenge this please
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One thing I forgot to mention on Zoopla it says that the property in question would have a band D C. Tax bill but on our local authority website it says both are Band E0
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princess23 wrote: »One thing I forgot to mention on Zoopla it says that the property in question would have a band D C. Tax bill but on our local authority website it says both are Band E
Zoopla is not reliable and using a 2015 price to try and ascertain a 1991 value is also not reliable. See if you can find similar size and type houses nearby in a Band D.If you are querying your Council Tax band would you please state whether you are in England, Scotland or Wales0 -
Local Borough Council: Southampton
Council Tax Band Before: F
Council Tax Band After: E
Amount refunded: £6000
Annual saving going forward:£400/year
All for a morning's research. No quibbles, just like clockwork. Thanks Martin0 -
Success but with strings
I have been successful in having my bungalow reassessed from band G to band F with an Effective Date of Alteration on 1/4/1993. As I have been living in this bungalow since 1983 I was expecting a 26 year of rebate, which going by my records and some assumptions should be approximately £5.5K and Annual saving of £350. I have received a letter from North Somerset Council stating the rebate is from 1/4/2001 and only £4.9K. Dose any one knows the reason??
Also, they inform me that I must request payment of the rebate and that I would only get what is left after they deduct this year’s Tax liability even though I have always paid monthly. Is this normal and can I request that the rebate is paid in full, as I wish to continue to pay monthly?
Final point as Water rates are calculated on the Ratable Value can I request a refund from them to?
Thank you Martin and your team.0 -
Only the council can tell you exactly why but there are many reasons why no refund could be due earlier - was there an exemption in place, full council tax benefit paid etc. If they tried to restrict it to 6 years I could have told you straight away what they were up to but 17 years is an odd one.Success but with strings
I have been successful in having my bungalow reassessed from band G to band F with an Effective Date of Alteration on 1/4/1993. As I have been living in this bungalow since 1983 I was expecting a 26 year of rebate, which going by my records and some assumptions should be approximately £5.5K and Annual saving of £350. I have received a letter from North Somerset Council stating the rebate is from 1/4/2001 and only £4.9K. Dose any one knows the reason??
Legislation in respect of this is a mess when it comes to refunds and can depend on exactly how it's read. In general, unless you want to get in to the inner depths of council tax legislation to argue it then the legislation would support the council.Also, they inform me that I must request payment of the rebate and that I would only get what is left after they deduct this year’s Tax liability even though I have always paid monthly. Is this normal and can I request that the rebate is paid in full, as I wish to continue to pay monthly?Final point as Water rates are calculated on the Ratable Value can I request a refund from them to?
Thank you Martin and your team.
The RV is long since frozen for water so you'll not get anything back.I no longer work in Council Tax Recovery but instead work as a specialist Council Tax paralegal assisting landlords and Council Tax payers with council tax disputes and valuation tribunals. My views are my own reading of the law and you should always check with the local authority in question.0
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