Martin Lewis Urges People To Check Their Council Tax Band For Possible Refunds

Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis is urging Brits to check they are not paying too much Council Tax.

In the latest episode of The Martin Lewis Money Show Live - which aired on Thursday evening - Martin urged viewers to check their Council Tax band, explaining there are around 400,000 homes in the UK currently in the wrong band.

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One easy way of doing this is to check what band your neighbours are in. To check your band matches with those nearby, those in England should visit voa.gov.uk in England or saa.gov.uk in Scotland.

All you need to do is head to the website and choose the 'Check your Council Tax Band' where you will be prompted to enter your postcode. All properties within your postcode will be listed, along with which band they are in.

The next check to undergo is the 'valuation check', in which you have to determine what your house was worth in 1991.

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"That sounds complex as you've got to work out what your house was worth in 1991 because that's what decides the bands," explained Martin.

"To do it, you've got to take a valuation of your house, or a similar house and then convert it back through a house calculator, but don't worry - there are free tools online that will do this for you."

To do this, all you need to do is head over to the Money Saving Expert website, where Martin has added a handy calculator to determine what your house was worth 30 years ago and what band it should be in now.

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Back in 2019, the financial guru conducted an investigation into Council Tax, and shockingly, it was revealed that there was at least £230million in overpaid tax, so it's certainly worth double checking!

However, Martin points out that if you do feel you may be in the wrong band and you want to challenge this, it's important to note that you can only ask for a 'reassessment', which means it could be moved up or down.

"This is why it is crucially important you do BOTH of the checks, and to be especially careful if you've added an extension or something that increases your property's value," Martin explains, via his website.

Topics: Life News, Martin Lewis, Property

Lucy Devine

Lucy is a journalist working for Tyla. After graduating with a master's degree in journalism, she has worked in both print and online and is particularly interested in fashion, food, health and women's issues. Northerner, coffee addict, says hun a lot. Get in touch at [email protected].

@lucedevine