Martin Lewis fan won back £4,000 after challenging…

Martin Lewis fan won back £4,000 after challenging council tax band - here's how

A Martin Lewis fan received a £4,000 council tax refund after finding out her home was in the wrong band.

MoneySavingExpert reader Ali took the consumer guru's advice to double check the council tax banding of her house. After discovering it was put in the wrong band when it was built, Ali was awarded £4,000 back - and she'll pay lower bills going forward.

The news comes after dozens of households were found to have overpaid on 30 years worth of council tax bills. An investigation found that 79 households in one particular area - the East Lothian Council region in Scotland - were owed back thousands, reports The Mirror.

Writing in the latest MSE email, Ali said: "I took your advice regarding checking that my house is in the correct council tax band and I discovered that when it was built, it was put in the wrong band. This means for 12 years I have been paying too much. Today I received a rebate of more than £4,000. Thank you."

Council tax is an annual fee paid to your local authority. The fees cover services such as rubbish collection, street cleaning, street light maintenance and libraries. Council tax bands are decided by looking at roughly how much a home is worth.

How to challenge your council tax banding

If you think you're in the wrong council tax band, you may be owed thousands of pounds back. But it’s important to note that if you find you're in too low a council tax band, you'll have to pay more - and your neighbours bills could be bumped up too.

First, you should check what council tax band your neighbours are on. This can be done online, as long as you’re comparing homes of a similar size and value to your own.

Use the Gov.uk website to do this for houses in England, or the Scottish Assessors Association for properties in Scotland. When checking, you should keep in mind that it could just be that your entire street is in the wrong banding.

Council tax was launched in 1991 - so you’ll need to work out how much your property was worth back then. MoneySavingExpert has a free calculator tool to help you do this, as well as a table on what band your house should have been put in.

If after these checks you believe you’re in the wrong band, you can contact the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) in England and Wales.

For home in Scotland you'll need to contact the Scottish Assessors Association (SAA) to submit your challenge. You can appeal to an independent valuation tribunal if your application isn’t successful, or if you’re unhappy with the response.

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