How to check and challenge your council tax band as…

How to check and challenge your council tax band as bills rise for households across the North East

Council tax bills will rise by 5% for millions of people from April as local authorities seek to raise much-needed funds. Three-quarters of English councils are planning to increase bills by the maximum allowed from April.

For the average band D property, this rise means that homeowners, tenants and families will pay an extra £100 a year. As the cost of living continues to rise, families will want to save every penny possible.

But according to experts, there are many households that could be paying too much as their homes are in the wrong band. So how do you check and challenge your council tax band?

How to check your council tax band

You can check your council tax band on the Gov.uk website. You can search by your postcode and the result will show a list of the other properties in your street that share the same postcode. It’s this list that will help you to see whether or not you could challenge your bills.

How to challenge your council tax band

Money-saving guru himself Martin Lewis says that there are hundreds of thousands of homes in the wrong band and many could have been overpaying for years. His website, Money Saving Expert, has a four-step guide to reclaiming any council tax, here is what it recommends.

Step one

Check on the Gov.uk website to see what band your home is in compared with your neighbours. If neighbours in similar properties are in a lower band than you, then you may have a claim.

However, Money Saving Expert warns that you shouldn’t rush ahead here if your home is in a different band. It recalls the story of a street in Hull when one resident appealed and instead of getting moved to a lower band, the entire street was moved up a notch and faced even higher bills.

Step two

The second step is to estimate what your home was worth in 1991, as that’s when council tax bands were defined. There are a number of calculators online that can help you to figure out the worth of your home in 1991.

Once you know its value, you can work out what council tax band it would have fallen into then, which will give you an idea of what band you should be in now.

Step three

Here, Money Saving Expert warns householders that challenging your council tax band, if you think you’re in too high a band, does not mean that you’ll get a reduction. There is a possibility that your band could go up or down and your neighbours’ band could do so too.

Step four

If you’ve carried out the above checks, and you’re sure that you could be in the wrong band, then this is the point to challenge. To make a claim you’ll need to ask your local authority to carry out a reassessment.

In England, this usually means putting in a case to the VOA online. Alternatively, there is an option on the Gov.uk website to challenge the band of your property.

This is a complicated process, and you will have to give plenty of evidence that your house's council tax band deserves to be reassessed. You will have to give examples of the council tax bands of other properties similar to your own, as well as old house price information if you can.

You will also be asked to explain why you think your home is in the wrong council tax band, and which band you think it should be in.

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