challenge your council tax bill

[ckfe]

we did and our bill went down from �156 a month to �113

millions of houses have been calculated in the wrong council tax banding.. ours was a C but i challenged it and they reduced it to a B... PLUS they reduced 90% of my neighbours too!!! (not my next door neighbours though happily )

AND if they reduce your council tax banding you get a refund of the overpayments for all the years you've been living in the house

have a look at this link... it's worth trying!!

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/rec...x-bands-change

[shirlthegirl43]

Apparently doesn't work for Wales Useful info anyway thanks.

[ckfe]

Apparently doesn't work for Wales Useful info anyway thanks.

bloody hell, that's a bit welshist if you can't do it there innit??

[shirlthegirl43]

Apparently it is because we were recently re-banded - probably used the same method though so a bit of a farce really

[zazen999]

We did ours at our old house, got a rebate for us [YAY] and a rebate for the landlord [???]...who didn't even bother to say thanks.

[ckfe]

We did ours at our old house, got a rebate for us [YAY] and a rebate for the landlord [???]...who didn't even bother to say thanks.

we haven't had any thanks off the rest of our neighbours either, mind you that's probably cos they don't know it was us who got it reduced.. didn't really want the ones who didn't get it whinging at us about it.. even though it wasn't our decision you'll still always get one who takes it personally

[gingerlover]

Hi, I know this off the subject but how do you put a question on here?

Thanks for replying (before you do anyway)

[ckfe]

Hi, I know this off the subject but how do you put a question on here?

Thanks for replying (before you do anyway)

took me ages to work this one out too... you scroll to the bottom of the page and in a big oblong black box you'll find a list of the forums, pick the one you want, click on it and then click on the new thread thingy

[NOG]

They could review it and put it up...or put yours down and your neighbours up.

[ckfe]

They could review it and put it up...or put yours down and your neighbours up.

there's a tool thingy on a website that helps you work it out.. bit complicated but it showed that i was paying too much.. if it'd been the other way i wouldn't have contacted the council

[NOG]

Good idea.

[Alison]

Checked ours a few years ago and it was right but noticed that half the houses on our street (where they are all the same) were the band above. Told the neighbours that they should pursue it but don't think they got anywhere.

[bluemoon]

Checked ours a few years ago and it was right but noticed that half the houses on our street (where they are all the same) were the band above. Told the neighbours that they should pursue it but don't think they got anywhere.

I'm pretty certain my mum's is wrong, she's band c, but only has a 3 bed cottage, whereas all the other houses on her road are large 4 bed+ houses. All the houses on that road are different from each other so there's nothing to compare it with like for like. Although she's retired she has a pension from work, plus a small pension from a previous employer from years ago, it doesn't make her any better off because she has to pay the full amount of council tax and there are lots of other benefits which she's simply not entitled to because of that and the fact that she has some savings. In fact she'd be better off if she just had the state pension, had never saved and so could claim all the 'extras', makes you wonder if it was worth it. Anyway a reduction in council tax would certainly be a help.

[Hilary B]

I'm pretty certain my mum's is wrong, she's band c, but only has a 3 bed cottage, whereas all the other houses on her road are large 4 bed+ houses. All the houses on that road are different from each other so there's nothing to compare it with like for like. Although she's retired she has a pension from work, plus a small pension from a previous employer from years ago, it doesn't make her any better off because she has to pay the full amount of council tax and there are lots of other benefits which she's simply not entitled to because of that and the fact that she has some savings. In fact she'd be better off if she just had the state pension, had never saved and so could claim all the 'extras', makes you wonder if it was worth it. Anyway a reduction in council tax would certainly be a help.

The banding is based on theoretical saleable value on some specific date. When we were in Orkney, every house on our island (bar one) was band A, simply because it was isolated enough that few wanted to live there. Similar houses on the more accessible islands were band B and the nearby mainland some very similar ones were band C.
Odds are your Mum's house should be a band lower than her neighbours, but there may be some subtle reason why hers is valued high for its size, or it may be hers has a value at the lower end of the band, and her neighbours one at the higher end.
Sometimes I wonder what was supposed to be wrong with the original 'rates' system, that charged a percentage of the 'value', rather than this 'banding' approach that charges everything from x to y at the same amount.

[Incy]

This is really interesting ckfe. I just checked the banding rates. Our whole street is rated c but I know for fact that our next door neighbour bought his house for 50k (so band B just) in 92/93. As this is the largest house on the road with the biggest garden it makes me believe that none of these properties were worth over 50k in 91........ I shall investigate further.