Has anyone managed to get a rebate on their council tax for being in the wrong band?

[sandyballs]

We have discovered our neighbours are band D and we are band E (identical homes). I have challenged our local council and they are dismissing it, saying I should have appealed back in 1991 when the listing bands were set. Didn't move into the house until 1999 so bit difficult . I have written back explaining this but just wondered if anyone had succeeded.

Yes, but our house was a new build and had been wrongly assessed. DH did all the work to get it lowered but from what I remember we had to give details of the house and that was compared to the same type of house and prices from 1991. The whole street got their band changed as a result of our appeal so it was worth doing .

I would have thought your council would have had a procedure for such queries rather than being so dismissive though? I hope you manage to get it sorted out.

we had ours changed in march this year and have been refunded all the overpaid council tax since we moved in- go to the council offices armed with evidence if possible (ask your neighbours?) and stamp your feet!

if that fails, start to cry, they soon want to get rid of the blubbering woman in reception!

Thanks. I will persevere, they must owe us a few hundred pound, if not thousands.

Yes we did when we moved out of our house after 5 years (2 years ago) It was only when we were selling we realised we were in a higher band than everyone else in street!? Someone from the council came to see the house and we got the additional money we paid over the 5 years repaid.

i got a letter saying that i'm in the correct band, maybe i should ask the neighbours what theirs it at.

they ask me over the phone if we had double-glazing, i said yes. but, should have mentioned that we did this last year not in 1991!

will try again!

You can check what band your neighbours are in on moneysavingexpert.com That is what first alerted me to the fact that we were banded differently.

check what the whole street is on though, you may get put up a band instead

Yes, it happened to me years ago. We discovered, by chance, that everyone in the street was on a lower band than us, so we challenged the local council and they stumped up (fairly quickly, too).

If I remember rightly though, they didn't give us a cheque for the overpayments, but took it off our council tax payments.

Just keep trying - they're in the wrong. If you don't get any joy after several attempts, contact the local paper.

You can look at the bands for all of your street on VOA website. Google it!

I would check the whole street by number and make a list
have a look on the valuation office website www.voa.gov.uk
click on the right hand button for council tax band searches
put in the number and postcode and voila! it will list the bands
Good luck

My dads just found out that he's been in a higher band to everyone else in his street, and that the surrounding streets are in the lower band as well.
Apparently his neighbour had heard about the other streets and appealed it and got his band changed.
My dad asked about this with the council and theyve told him to write in which he has done and theyve told him that it will take a couple of months to sort out.

I've just looked at this and found out that we're on a higher band than everyone else i the street Didn't have a clue about that. Despite 2 whopping extensions on other houses. At the time we probably did have a small extension- but only 1 room. We have added a large extension- but only in the last 6 months.

Anyway have filled in the appeal form and sent it off, so we'll just wait and see.
Thank you for pointing it out.