Burnham to send inspectors to value homes – and you could be FINED if you refuse

INSPECTORS will be sent to homes to decide if the owners will need to hand over thousands in tax under a new levy. HMRC valuation agents will be able to demand entry to your property to assess if it is worth more than £2million and you therefore need to pay the new mansion tax. If you don’t let the inspectors in then you would be considered to be committing a criminal offence and could be hit with a fine of up to £200, according to The Telegraph. In the Budget the former Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that from April 2028, residential homes in England that are worth more than £2 million will be hit with an annual surcharge. Sign up for the Money newsletter Thank you! The exact amount you will have to pay depends on the value of your home and can range from £2,500 to £7,500 a year. Around 165,000 homes will be hit with the tax in 2028/29, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility. The vast majority of affected homes will be in London and the South East. The homes that could be affected by the levy will be identified using third-party data and public information. To introduce the tax officials will need to assess homes in England’s top council tax bands, which are currently tracked by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA). Fewer than 1% of properties in England are expected to be worth more than £2million. Most read in Money But Jonathan Russell, head of the VOA, told MPs in January that valuation professionals will “probably look at houses that have an indicative value of £1.5million just to make sure we’re not missing anything”. Internal inspections will be completed when “attributes can only be confirmed internally or a re-measurement is required”, the Valuation Office told the Telegraph. Inspectors will make notes on the size and architectural style of a home, the number of floors, rooms, bedrooms and bathrooms. Meanwhile, there could be regular home inspections to make sure valuations are up to date, which would require a surveyor to come and complete a full physical survey. Under the Local Government Finance Act 1992, a person who “intentionally delays or obstructs” an authorised valuation officer lawfully exercising powers to enter, survey or value a property could, on conviction, be fined up to £200. Separately, a person who, “without reasonable excuse”, fails to comply with a formal notice requiring specified property information in their possession or control could, on conviction, be fined up to £500. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government was approached for comment. Comment now