Residents in a retirement village will have their council tax cut after winning a 16-year-long battle over incorrect bills.
Homeowners in Redhill, Surrey, are now receiving council tax rebates of up to £9,000 each due to the historic error – which dates back to 1993.
The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) had originally placed 113 residents’ homes in council tax bands D and E. But they should have all been placed a band lower, in either C or D.
Council tax is based on valuations from the early 1990s, with some put in the wrong bands at the time. Suspected incorrect council tax valuations can be challenged.
In Oaklands Park, one of Redhill’s retirement villages, the Government overestimated valuations by including services provided by a nursing home in its calculations. These included cheap transport into Redhill and a visiting nurse.
The nursing home was later converted into more flats for people with disabilities, which meant all these extra services disappeared. But residents argued that the nursing home should never have formed part of the VOA’s calculations in the first place.
A joint appeal was first made to the VOA by residents back in 2008, but it was rejected.
Over 14 years later, in 2022, residents discovered they could not apply for energy bill support during the pandemic because their properties were still in the wrong bands. The discovery reinvigorated efforts by residents to challenge their council tax bills again.
After further failed attempts, residents have now won their bid and will benefit from a £500 cut to bills from now.
Marilyn Rodd, the resident who led the campaign, said: “The VOA has finally listened to us and put right what so many of us knew was long-standing injustice.
“We’ve worked hard to bring together all 113 homeowners – many of whom do not have internet access or the ability to complete the online challenge form to the Government.”
Ted Earl, 81, is one of the residents who has received thousands of pounds-worth of council tax rebates. He and his wife moved to Oaklands Park back in 2007.
He said: “The sad thing is that the council will win out on those residents who have moved on or died, because money which isn’t claimed will just stay in the councils’ coffers.
“The VOA had the information all along. Why has it taken all this time to pick it up? Some of these valuation officers clearly didn’t know what they were doing.”
Newly elected Green councillor Gillian Vischer is currently supporting residents of nearby Crofters Close – built in 2004, some 15 years after its neighbour Oaklands Park – to see if they too could benefit from appealing their council tax bills.
A VOA spokesman said: “We work extremely hard to ensure that all domestic properties are banded correctly for council tax purposes. However, if a taxpayer thinks their band is wrong, they are able to contact us to submit a formal or informal challenge.”
Reigate and Banstead Borough Council said while the setting of council tax bands is the remit of the VOA, it is responsible for collecting the tax.
A spokesman said: “We want people to pay the right amount and, where refunds are necessary, we aim to refund taxpayers as quickly as possible.”
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