How To Cut Your Council Tax With Little-known Trick Helping Thousands

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

As council tax bills rise for almost everyone across the UK, new figures show that many households could be unnecessarily overpaying on the monthly cost.

Thousands of people were able to challenge the government on their property’s council tax band last year, resulting in a lower council tax bill. Of the 43,820 people that asked for a revaluation last year, nearly 1,000 were able to lower their band by two places or more, official figures from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) show.

Since 2019, some 5,591 people have managed to get the council tax band of their property lowered. In 329 of these cases, this was even by four bands or more.

Millions of households will see a jump in their annual council tax bills from 1 April (PA Archive)

Recent analysis by money expert Martin Lewis has predicted that around 400,000 households are in the wrong band – and so paying too much in council tax – and should consider making a challenge. If successful, the household will not only be due a lower bill going forward, but possibly even a massive backdated payout for all the time they were paying the wrong level of tax.

The banding system is often criticised for being outdated, as the value of properties remains based on an assessment carried out in 1991. These values have changed dramatically in recent years, with some areas seeing massive spikes in property value, and others seeing drops.

For instance, households in Greater London are now paying £444 less on average than those in the North East, despite the region having much higher average sale prices and household incomes. From this month, the average council tax bill is the lowest in the country at £1,981, while those in the North East are seeing £2,425, analysis by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) has found.

However, revaluations are not based on today’s prices, but still based on 1991 market rates. This means that the VOA will take the physical characteristics of a property into account, rather than today’s value. Because of this, the agency can actually place the property into a higher tax band if it believes the value has become higher since it was last checked.

In very unlucky cases, a revaluation could also result in neighbouring properties being placed into a higher band. This is why Mr Lewis recommends households make a few easy checks before pressing ahead with their request.