Beware of council tax banding appeals scam

Residents should be wary of phone callers who may claim that they can get your council tax banding lowered and save you thousands of pounds. A resident in Grampound took a call from Claimers UK Ltd. saying that they were confident that they could save the resident money. They said that they would charge a fee of 20% of the savings that they achieved. What they did not mention was that there was an upfront fee. The resident was persuaded to provide his debit card number for what he thought would be when the savings had been made. However, he found a few days later that the company had already charged him £65. There is no real evidence that the property is in the wrong council tax band and it is very unlikely that the resident will see any reduction in his council tax bills.

This dubious practice has been around for a few years. See BBC website article from 2011.

The advice is clear – do not give your card details to cold callers such as these companies.

September 2015