My parents have received a letter from company who say they can challenge their council tax band, "for a fee" of course.

Ive read the sticky but not sure what to advise my parents, they are quite old and wouldnt dream of dealing this by themselves and I really would be put out if some oik in an office somewhere got hold of their hard earned money.

Has anyone on here successfully challenged the tax band, would I be able to do it on their behalf (with their tacit agreement ofcourse)?

Hi monx

All you need to do is look at the band of houses in the same street, as well as houses in the area to see if you need to challenge.

This is fairly straight forward for an individual to do, you don't need a company doing this for your parents.

http://www.voa.gov.uk/council_tax/cti_home.htm

Don't be tempted to pay someone for something you could do yourself and the chances are they take your hard earned & say there was no change. Stick with what Rebel says.

PT

Right! Thats just what I thought, thanks for you help both of you.

Ive done the calculation and there are three other houses in the street with a lower band that are of similar shape and size. they havent modernised or added value to the house with any extensions etc and according to the calculator the house was valued at less (in 1991) than the band they have been paying.

If parents want to challenge it I will do it on their behalf. I just worry that by doing it they revalue it for more and this costs my parents.

How long have your parents lived at the address?

Since 1987, their mortgage was for £19000.00 in Feb of that year.

According to the calculator it would have been valued around £27,000.00 in 1991 and as such should have been band A but they have been Band B since that date.

Three other houses built at the same time by the same builder and the same spec, size and shape are already listed as band A so I think we should be ok but I always worry about the fly in the ointment!

I'm fairly sure that you can get a refund for previous years, but not sure how far back you can go.

Heres some info: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/council-tax-bands-change

just going through this myself

tes you can get it back dated

dx

A business premises I moved into were paying what I thought were the wrong rates - too much. I appealed against them and they informed me the rates had been wrong for the last 40 years but when asking what rebate I get was told it was only for 1 year.

Do your parents have a corner plot or one that is slightly larger than some of the others? Also if on a side street they could be more if you are nearer the main road! They have some weird & wonderful ways of working these out & I agree you should be careful in case it goes up but think this is only likely on resale but am unsure.

PT

They do have a small piece of land in front of the house but its about ten feet square (if that), there is nothing you could put on there that would improve the house or its value.

If the Valuation Office decide the banding has been wrong since the property was first banded then they will alter the banding back that far .

The refunded balance (if it is re-banded) would be at most the difference between a Band A and B charge for each year - it may be less once any transitional relief or council tax benefit is adjusted.

A business premises I moved into were paying what I thought were the wrong rates - too much. I appealed against them and they informed me the rates had been wrong for the last 40 years but when asking what rebate I get was told it was only for 1 year.

Business rates, IIRC from when I did my training, revaluations are only valid for the life of the list. The list is re-drawn every 5 years so that is the maximum that any change can be backdated (or to the start of the list if less).

Yep and I did it over the telephone and got several months refund. We had only been in the cottage for several months at the time.

If it only if it were that simple. We have 2,3, and 4 bed houses all in same band and all in the same road, yards apart, so nothing to compare to other than it's obvious they shouldn't have all been placed in the same catagory. Our valuation should have been lower as of the date it was calculated but the previous owners appealed and lost soon after. None of the 2-3 beds would have met the valuation at that time and would have been Band A with the rest B or C.

I can't magic up something to compare to if there is nothing to go on but surely common sense should prevail?