How YOU can lower your council tax by challenging it – 99.6% of bills fall or stay the same when people follow these steps

A whole lot of hundreds of households could possibly reduce their council tax invoice by requesting their property is put in a decrease band, Cash Mail can reveal.

Those that suspect they’re within the incorrect council tax band have little to lose by difficult it, as round a 3rd are profitable and find yourself paying much less — whereas just one in each 2,500 finally ends up paying extra.

Households that could possibly be profitable are usually delay from difficult their council tax band as they worry the method is troublesome they usually might find yourself paying extra, not much less.

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Sadly, the primary half is true, as a result of getting a council tax band modified is usually a painstaking job. 

However the unimaginable success charge has been revealed to Cash Mail and our sister web site That is Cash in official figures from a Freedom of Info Request.

Simply ten houses — 0.04 per cent of households querying their council tax band within the yr to April 2023 — have been moved into the next tax band, in keeping with knowledge for properties in England and Wales from the Valuation Workplace Company (VOA). 

This implies council tax both fell or stayed the identical for 99.96 per cent who challenged it.

The determine could possibly be even decrease than that, as a result of the VOA rounded up the quantity to the closest ten.

Compared, 8,430 (37 per cent) of those that challenged their council tax band have been moved to a decrease one, though the bulk (14,010, or 62 per cent) have been stored in the identical tax band.

The figures have been comparable for different current years, with solely 0.13 per cent of houses (20) shifting up council tax bands after appeals in 2021/22, and 0.15 per cent (20) paying extra after they challenged theirs in 2020/21.

In current weeks, most households may have obtained their council tax payments for the approaching yr at a brand new increased charge. Virtually all may have seen a hike of 4.99 per cent, or an additional £104 a yr for a typical family.

The arrival of those shock payments will immediate hundreds to problem their council tax band. The VOA, which manages council tax bands, sees a rise in these queries each April.

When the present council tax system was launched in 1991, each property in England and Wales was valued and put in considered one of seven council tax bands.

Band A was for properties valued at beneath £40,000 whose homeowners would pay the bottom degree of council tax; whereas Band H was for properties valued at £320,000 or increased, with their homeowners paying the very best degree.

These bands are nonetheless getting used as we speak.

Nevertheless, the method on the time was flawed, with many valuations judged merely on the looks of a constructing relatively than shut scrutiny of its market worth.

As many as 33 years later, council tax bands have nonetheless by no means undergone a wholesale overview. As an alternative, households can problem theirs in the event that they imagine their residence was overvalued in 1991.

Homeowners who challenged their council tax bands within the North West and Yorkshire and the Humber have been among the many most profitable in 2023, with 42.9 per cent and 41.9 per cent respectively seeing their band fall.

Households within the Midlands and London have been among the many least profitable, with 25.8 and 32 per cent respectively successful their contests.

However ought to your problem show unsuccessful and you might be moved to the next band, you could possibly face indignant neighbours — in addition to increased payments.

That’s as a result of once you question a council tax band with the VOA, you might be required to provide examples of comparable properties in the identical space paying lower than you. 

If the VOA decides you might be truly paying the correct quantity in tax, it might determine that different native properties must pay extra too.

This has led to circumstances the place one property in a road has challenged a council tax band, solely to have all the opposite houses within the highway uprated consequently.

In 2015, residents of Lynton Avenue in Hull ended up paying £160 a yr extra in council tax after one house owner’s failed bid to get their property downgraded.

Right here’s problem your council tax band:

See how your private home measures up

Ask neighbours in the same property what council tax band they’re in. If they’re in a decrease band, that will increase the prospect that you need to be too.

Alternatively, if you happen to don’t wish to ask your neighbours, you may examine their council tax bands, or actually the banding of any property in England or Wales, utilizing the VOA’s on-line software at gov.uk/council-tax-bands.

For those who reside in Scotland, use the Scottish Assessors Affiliation (SAA) as a substitute at saa.gov.uk/.

Return in time to examine worth

The following step is to work out what your private home was price in 1991, when the council tax bands have been determined.

Until your private home has beforehand been revalued for council tax functions, it gained’t have modified since then.

That is usually easiest to work out on-line, by utilizing web sites corresponding to Rightmove, which file historic sale costs from 1995.

For those who purchased your own home after 1991 however earlier than 1995 you could possibly work out its worth from wanting up home adverts of the time in newspaper archives.

Analysis the 1991 council tax bands

Subsequent, examine which council tax band your property ought to have been put in throughout 1991. 

This may be completed on-line at gov.uk/ steering/understand-how- council-tax-bands-are-assessed.

In case your property appears to be in too excessive a band, you will have a case to get it re-banded.

Expense: Most households may have obtained council tax payments for this yr at a brand new increased charge. Virtually all have seen a hike of 4.99 %, or an additional £104 a yr for a typical family

Submit Your problem with proof

The fourth step is to ask in your council tax band to be reassessed. Contemplate very rigorously whether or not you wish to go forward. 

Though it’s a small threat, there’s all the time the prospect that your band will go up relatively than down and your council tax payments will rise.

In England and Wales, you may put in a case to the VOA on-line at gov.uk/challenge-council- tax-band. Alternatively, claimants can e-mail ctinbox@voa.gov.uk or name 03000 501 501.

It is a difficult course of, and you’ll have to give loads of proof to again up your declare. Additionally, you will be requested to elucidate why you suppose your private home is within the unsuitable band — and which band you suppose it must be in.

In Scotland, this could all be completed on the SAA web site at saa.gov.uk/council-tax/council- tax-bands.

A Residents Recommendation spokesman says: ‘If the VOA agrees to overview your band they’ll write to you, normally inside two months, to let you understand their determination.

‘Keep in mind that if your private home is in band A, the bottom band, the VOA can’t cut back it additional.’

For those who succeed, you might be more likely to pay between £100 and £400 much less in council tax every year. You must also get a refund for all of the years you’ve been overpaying, backdated to once you moved in.

These payouts can return so far as 1993, when the tax got here into power, and could possibly be price hundreds of kilos.