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  4. Council Tax refunds

Council Tax refunds

Refunds

If there is an overpayment showing on your account, we will allocate it to any other outstanding Council Tax accounts you may have. If you do not have any outstanding accounts we will take what we owe you off your next bill or if you'd rather have the money now you can ask us to pay it into your bank account. In order to minimise potential fraud we no longer issue refunds by cheque and will only refund direct to a bank account. We don’t normally issue refunds for amounts under £5.

If you paid by direct debit we will normally use these details. If you don’t pay your Council Tax by direct debit, we will need your bank details so that we can organise a Bacs refund.

Occasionally a credit can occur due to an error and if this is found to be the case we have the right to refuse to refund.

Sometimes a dispute over a refund can arise between individuals who have been jointly liable for a bill. For example, in the case of a relationship breakdown where one party has moved out. We will not become involved in disputes of this nature as we expect the parties concerned to reach a mutual resolution.

Whilst the credit will normally remain with the property concerned we reserve the right to take individual circumstances into account as appropriate. This may mean for example that we decide to split the credit between the two parties or where the person who paid by direct debit has moved out we may opt to refund them.

Where you will be due a refund because you have moved or something else has changed, you will first need to tell us about the change in circumstances.

Ask for a Council Tax refund

If you get an unexpected call or message about a Council Tax refund, be careful - see  Council Tax scams.

What happens next

We’ll check that you’re due a refund. If you are, we should be able to pay it within 20 working days, although there may be exceptions to this. Refund payments are only issued once a week.

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Page last reviewed: 19 January 2022

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