Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

poole-man · 1 February 2007 at 5:57PM

Poole Borough Council
Band E
Band D
Refund £2245
Great result, but what about the interest? The council have been taking extra money since 1993 so interest should be allowed. Anybody else tried?

jackiey61 · 1 February 2007 at 10:18PM

i heard about being able to do this in october 06 so i e-mailed my local council to get my band taken off a band D. at this point they refused and i forgot about it, i then got my e-mail from moneysavingexpert.com and re-applied, i got a reply today saying they are putting it down to a band C! Thankyou so much!!!

marsbar · 1 February 2007 at 11:13PM

Hi there,
Having found the most recent sale price of a similar property to mine in my area the property is in the same band as mine which is C band. However when i used the steps 1-3 to calculate my house value at 1991 levels the value of my house falls in the B banding column. Does this mean that i may be
entitled to a rebate and therefore i should make a claim?

Regards,
marsbar

jules1962_2 · 2 February 2007 at 5:10PM

Council: Kirklees Met Council, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
Banding: from B to A
Refund: more than 600 quid (INC. INTEREST!)- result in less than 28 days!

Story: we knew from Day 1 we were in the wrong band - we even saw the 'valuers' doing their '2nd Gear drive-by' - they didn't even walk up our street! We challenged the banding via the standard form/method with the Valuation Office. The VO ack'd our claim by return of post and they agreed with the banding move and paid up very promptly. I would COMPLIMENT the Council for what they did next - instead of us needing to tell our neighbours and then them having to do indiv. claims, the Council wrote to everyone in our street to advise them of a re-banding down and paid out their refunds too. Good on Kirklees!

Advice: worth checking if any of your neighbours, or even you(!), have recently had their homes valued (re-mortgage, new arrivals etc.) and are preparedto provide you with a copy. The VO told us it had helped our claim to have provided them with a copy of a recent valuation we'd had done due to re-mortgage.

Carryonsaving · 2 February 2007 at 9:29PM

Hi,

Has any one in this process had there banding moved upwards where they owe more money?

I ask as I am investigating my partners parents home. They are in Band F.There are only two other properties within a 1 mile radius. One of the properties is a two bed and the other is a four bed. Both of them are in Band F. Surely this cannot be correct. I am asking as they are both elderley and I wouldn't want there banding to move in a upward scale.Ccan anyone share any stories/experiences on this?

3rd Feb 2007. I have just found out that there neoghbouring property in in Band d - 2 bands lowers than theres, which is ridiculousa as the owner has just spent about 50,000 on it the last year alone and has done it up . I am now reccommending to them to gat a valuation done!! Wish me and them look!! PS. If they do give a rebate can you claim for 8% Statutory interest on the monies????

Microbeman · 2 February 2007 at 10:44PM

topbargainhunter wrote:

After seeing Martin on TV last week, I applied online against my council tax banding. I followed the instructions on this site, and found that my property had a value of band B back in 1993 (currently charged as C) and my next door neighbour with the exact same flat is Band B after appealing in 1993. I had a very swift response telling me i should have appealed within 6 months of moving in and my appeal has been rejected. I moved in in 1996 but had no clue that I could do this until a week ago. I have written back asking to get this taken to tribunal also citing 24 neighbouring flats that are band C like mine, but are larger and have more bedrooms.

I don't hold out much hope but would like to hear from anyone else with the same experience. Do we have any influence on the tribunal and is it the end of the argument if they reject your appeal?

Thanks

Topbargainhunter
I had a similar reply via a standard letter and it is true that we did not qualify under the criteria, however, they told me they have a legal duty to ensure the valuations are correct and are fair and consistent and so would review it on this basis. If you can convince the council that your flat is the same as your neighboors and different to all the others then you are halfway there. After watching Martins programme last week its obvious that for a block of flats they would probably just band them all the same as they wouldn't be easily able to tell how the accomodation differed. Be persistant and ask for an explanation as to why your neighboors flat which is the same as yours is in a lower band. When I did this they said it was because my house was bigger than all the other band C houses on my road, which it wasn't. Once I had this in writing as the reason for my higher band I knew that if I could prove that there wasn't any difference in the houses they would have to reduce my band. Things seemed to move very slowly but a phone call every month or so also made them realise that I was not going to be fobbed off. There is no substitute for speaking to someone, my letters just seemed to get overlooked and if you are well prepared then you can ask all the questions you want, and hopefully get some answers.
Don't give up
Good luck
Microbeman

soozig · 3 February 2007 at 12:49PM

Dundee City Council

Was band C
rebanded B

Refund- don't know yet

tarinilie · 3 February 2007 at 9:49PM

jules1962 wrote:

Council: Kirklees Met Council, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
Banding: from B to A
Refund: more than 600 quid (INC. INTEREST!)- result in less than 28 days!

Story: we knew from Day 1 we were in the wrong band - we even saw the 'valuers' doing their '2nd Gear drive-by' - they didn't even walk up our street! We challenged the banding via the standard form/method with the Valuation Office. The VO ack'd our claim by return of post and they agreed with the banding move and paid up very promptly. I would COMPLIMENT the Council for what they did next - instead of us needing to tell our neighbours and then them having to do indiv. claims, the Council wrote to everyone in our street to advise them of a re-banding down and paid out their refunds too. Good on Kirklees!

Hi..

just though I would correct you.
The VO did not pay up - they have nothing to do with money collection.
Your council paid up once your band was reduced.

The council did not reduce the bands - They have no power to reduce bands. The VOA reduced the bands and then wrote to everyone explaining so.

Some time later the council would have given refunds.

The council deals with the money you pay.
The VOA deals with band alterations

tarin

jeanssis · 4 February 2007 at 4:52AM

Hi,
We're in North Somerset. Just looked at bandings of all houses in our road(all same as ours mainly) & seen some have been rebanded to C from D effective 1/4/93 Court Code C. We moved into this house (new) Oct 1980. I saw we can only appeal against the D band if we have been in less than 6 months. Should we go for rebanding ? Would we be successful based on the others having been rebanded, does anyone think ? OR are councils now really not doing it for anyone who's been there MORE than the six months. Seems we have a case & have likely lost a lot of money. Just been told about this website.

Janice

nicks · 4 February 2007 at 1:49PM

Perth & Kinross.
From band E to D...

I saw the programme & made 1 phone call to the local Assessor & I got a letter on Firday (1 week after the programme) saying we would be reduced from E to D. My neighbour got the same letter too. Backdated to when we moved in 1998 (when the house was built). Over the moon & hopefully have about £2500.00 refunded...

Now, that's what I call a result!!! Well done P & K.

Nicks

Council Tax Rebanding SUCCESS stories

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free