Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

joyce341 · 15 March 2009 at 2:27PM

My daughter has moved into a flat two weeks ago,her banding is C,there are 78 flats,abour 43 private at the front sold for two hundred thousand and have a lift and are to a higher spec,her block at the back,selling for 122 thousand no lift,yet they are all given the same banding,I live up the road from her in a two bedroom Terrace built in 95 yet I am only band B .
should she apply for rebanding.
Joyce

lincroft1710 · 15 March 2009 at 6:30PM

Joyce - know S. Beds quite well and was personally responsible for some of bands. I will PM you about this.

Eband_millionaire · 19 March 2009 at 4:46PM

Local Council. Kings Lynn & W.Norfolk
Original band. F. New band. E.
Refund. £3,273 Monthly saving £34
I had been unhappy with the tax band for some years but had no real idea how to effect a change.Martins site was the catalyst. It is informative, gives you background, the tools to be able to compare your property & points the way to procede. What gave me the confidence to procede were the letters from previous successful claimants, to which I add my contribution.
Thank you to the Money Saving Expert for his unique and wide ranging newsletter.

JayZed · 25 March 2009 at 12:24PM

Local Borough Council: Enfield
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount refunded: Approx £300
Annual saving going forward: £313/year

The process was actually very quick - I e-mailed the VOA last month, someone came to look at it last week, and we got the letter today. Ours is a two-bedroom flat, and was in the same band as three or four bedroom houses in the same street, while every other flat was band C or D. I reckon it was a second-gear valuation error to begin with, because from the street our place looks like a large house - you can't see that it's divided into two flats.

We've only been living there a year, so we'll be getting a refund of about £300 and saving about the same going forward. Nice enough for us. But our upstairs neighbour, a lovely lady who doesn't have a large income and who had no idea that she could challenge her banding, has been living in her flat (also in Band E until now) since the 1980s, so she can look forward to refunds going back 16 years!

Thanks Martin!

lincroft1710 · 25 March 2009 at 6:17PM

JayZed - make sure either neighbour knows of your band reduction or VOA are aware her flat is same as yours, "consequential reductions" sometimes get overlooked.

Excellent news BTW.

charmony · 26 March 2009 at 7:14AM

COUNCIL SOUTH NORFOLK
ORIGINALY BAND C
REBANDED TO BAND B
GOT A REFUND OF £1700

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR ADVICE I DIDNT BELIEVE THAT I WOULD GET A PENNY BUT GAVE IT A GO AND AM NOW £1700 BETTER OFF.I WOULD SAY TO ANYONE NOTHING VENTURED NOTHING GAINED.
Gary and kerry

Haslopian · 26 March 2009 at 10:54PM

Belated thanks for your advice in 2007 Martin

Local Borough Council: Crewe
Council Tax Band Before: E
Council Tax Band After: D
Amount refunded: £2842.00

I dId a lot of fact gathering with regard to local properties and their banding and was also fortunate to have all the documents from 1992 when I purchased the property. My letter followed your suggested format and must have been pretty convincing as the cheque arrived about two weeks later.

Many Thanks again

Haslopian

mitchmen · 6 April 2009 at 8:33PM

Local Authority - Kennet (Wiltshire)
Band before - F
Band after - E
Refund - £40 (for 2 months)
Annual saving - £250

AS soon as we bought the property we suspected the banding was wrong as it was higher than our previous similar size property. Checking neighbours we were outraged!

We followed all the suggestions, Nationwide index, recent sales in the area. Plus I supplied pictures of neighbouring properties to show how grand they were in comparison with our humble abode! Our surveyors valuation was a great help as it was significantly less than recent sales.

Filled in the form and inside a month we got a refund

Mitchell (mitchmen)

unibabe · 8 April 2009 at 12:17PM

Thanks to MSE !!! Please could you answer query below?

Local Borough Council: Salford
Council Tax Band Before: C
Council Tax Band After: B
Amount refunded: £1908.18
Annual saving going forward: £310

Fairly easy to do as long as you do your homework and put a good case forward. Took 3 months. Make sure your figures are as correct as possible. Also did this for my neighbour and she got approx. £1700 back too!! I call that success.:jHOWEVER, Council took all the refund off me and took it off my council tax bill for nearly the next two years even though I have always paid monthly, never missed and never owed them anything. I didn't even know they had done this until I phoned to query where my new bill and refund cheque were. Apparently this is what this council are planning on doing in future rather than pay people refunds. :mad:. They didn't even inform me they were going to do that or ask permission. I had nothing from them whatsoever. I did object and they did say they will send me a cheque eventually but I've yet to receive it. They have managed to send me a new bill for this year though but still no cheque! I would be grateful if anyone knows what the rule is on refunds? Can Councils use any refund they owe us to pay off future bills rather than pay it back to us? The thought 'Even !!!!!! Turpin wore a mask' came to mind - amongst other things!!

jccaird · 8 April 2009 at 4:12PM

Local Borough Council: Leicester City Council
Council Tax Band Before: B
Council Tax Band After: A
Amount refunded: tbc - expecting about £600 to £800
Annual saving going forward: tbc - expecing about £100

If at first you don't succeed, try again comes to mind. The fact is, I first tried back in 2002 after moving into the property in March 2001. First problem was, despite informing the council that I'd moved it a number of times they did not acknowledge me with a bill until May 2002!!! Cue loads of backpayments which caused undue stress at the time.

Once I did get billed, I appealed straight away. I questioned the fact that I'd moved into a property smaller than my previous place (2 bed flat from a 3 bed terrace). I wrote a letter and they said they'd investigate. About a month later they said that they'd completed their investigation and that the banding was to remain a Band B. I was also told that there no way to appeal this - the letter I'd written was the appeal.

So, I carried on paying Band B until earlier this year. In total error, I opened a letter addressed to my recently departed neighbours (by departed I mean moved out pretty sharpish) and it was their final bill. I noticed that it stated Band A. I wondered how the flat above which also had two bedrooms but was approx 3x3 meters smaller could be a whole band less than mine.

I then found the VOA website and looked at other properties on the street and found that the only Band B properties in my postcode were my 2 bedroomed flat and 3 houses which are over 3 floors (4-5 bedrooms). So, I called up the VOA and explained all this and was told I would hear back within 8 weeks. 5 weeks later they've confirmed that I will be now a Band A, retrospectively dated back to 1st April 1993.

Now to reclaim the overpayments, then to put in a separate claim for the court costs they did not waive when they were asking for the wrong amounts, then a separate claim for their almighty mistake of not billing me until 15 months into my tenancy....

Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

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