Your council tax bill can be one of the biggest expenses associated with owning a house. For many people this is a large chunk of their salary gone to pay for council run services.
However, around 400,000 homes in both England and Scotland are not in the correct council tax band. You can check and challenge the banding your house is assessed to be in, which will not only reduce the cost of your council tax but you may also get a rebate that could be backdated to 1993!
Houses were placed into tax bands way back in 1991 when council tax was introduced. In many cases, the houses have never been reassessed to see which band they fall into, meaning there are a lot of people overpaying on their council tax.
The first step in lowering your council tax band is to check your neighbours banding and compare it to yours. You can find this information at the Valuation Office Agency in England and the Scottish Assessors Association in Scotland.
Check your band and that of your neighbours to see how they compare. You need to make sure you are comparing your band to a house of a similar size and value to ensure an accurate comparison.
If your neighbours are in a lower band than yourself then you could have a claim.
You can double check this by looking at your house price in 1991, when the bands were assessed. This will give you an idea of whether or not you are in the wrong band.
Remember that you cannot contact the council to ask them to lower your band, you ask them to re-assess your council tax band. If you haven't done your research, you could find your council tax band going up! In th worse case scenario, you could also find your neighbours bands are also increased, which isn't going to make for you being a popular neighbour!
If you are sure your house is in the wrong banding then you can either write to your Local Listing Officer or appeal online at the Valuation Office Agency.
You will have to state why you think your house is in the wrong band and ask them to explain how the decision for which band your house is in was made.
If your request is rejected then you can appeal to the Valuations Tribunal within three months and ask them to look at your case.
You may get told that you are unable to challenge the banding because you have been in the property for more than six months. If this happens you write to them telling them you believe the banding of your house to be incorrect and ask them to investigate and correct it. This will often work as they are legally obligated to investigate and keep bandings correct.
If you do get rejected, unless you have a very solid case it may not be worth appealing and pushing it any further. If the investigate and you get turned down and the appeal process fails for you then there isn't anything more you can do.
However, many people have successfully had the banding of their houses re-evaluated and are now paying less council tax.
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