How to lower your council tax band – and the deadline for £100 energy payment

The £100 payment due to be given to 29 million homes in council tax bands A-D has sparked a surge in enquiries to the Valuation Office Agency, which determines the band a home is in. In John Healey’s maiden Budget yesterday, he unveiled the measure which is aimed at giving people ‘breathing space’ to offset rising energy bills. Those living in homes in council tax bands A-D in England will get £100 payment sent straight to their bank accounts, meaning those sat outside those bands are set to miss out. Shorts The Welsh Government has confirmed it will deliver the same £100 payment, and funding has been allocated to Scotland and Northern Ireland to set up equivalent schemes. The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) – responsible for property valuations to support taxation – told The i Paper it had experienced “high demand” for its council tax services in the past 24 hours – including council tax band challenges. If you think your council tax band is wrong, you may be able to challenge it and there are two ways to do this – proposals and reviews. There will be a cut off date when people will need to have their Council Tax band reviewed by to be eligible for the £100 payment – though this date hasn’t yet been announced. This cut off date will be part of guidance given to local authorities setting out further details on the eligibility criteria for the payment – including the treatment of changes to council tax bands. Why council tax bands could be wrong Each residential property in England, Scotland and Wales is assigned a council tax band starting from A all the way to H. Tax is cheapest for those in Band A, with each band after that more expensive. People can check what band they are in by going to the government website – but those who attempted to do this on Wednesday may have been unsuccessful after the webpage seemingly crashed following Healey’s announcement. Many people may be sitting in the wrong council tax bands because of incorrect valuations that were made in 1991. Time pressures to have all properties banded before the new Council Tax system went live meant valuers completed “drive-by” valuations with assessors driving through streets and looking at houses from the outside to determine their value. What to do before making a challenge There are two checks you should complete before deciding whether to challenge or not, according to experts. The reason it is important to do these checks is because you can’t ask for your band to be lowered, only revalued, meaning you or your neighbour’s bands could also go up. You first must check if you are sitting in a different band to your neighbours who are in similar or identical properties which can be done on the government website. If you are in a different band to them it does not automatically mean you need to be put in a lower band – as it could be the case your neighbours are actually in the wrong band. Once you have passed that check, you then need to work out how much your property would have been worth in 1991. You can do this by entering the price and date of sale into any free house price websites like Zoopla or Rightmove, if you bought your house after 1991. Then you need to find a house that is similar to yours on your street that sold recently and note down the price and date. Once you have this information you can input this information into a home valuation calculator – MoneySavingExpert has a free one which will tell you roughly what the price of your home would have been in 1991 and you can compare it to today’s Council Tax bands. If you are in the incorrect band based on your property’s value in 1991 – and your neighbours are in lower bands than you, you may be able to challenge. How to make a challenge There are two ways you can challenge your council tax band if you think it’s wrong – the first being a proposal. You can make a proposal if you’ve been paying council tax on your property for less than six months or if you’ve changed your band in the past six months. When you make a proposal, the VOA must by law review your band. If you think you are in the wrong band and you have been paying council tax for more than six months, you can request a band review. However, the onus is on you to provide strong evidence that you are in the wrong band and there are few ways this can be done. What you first need to do is request your “property attributable data” which includes property type, how many bedrooms, bathrooms and floors. Having this information will tell you whether the VOA has incorrect information on your property and will also make it easier for you to find properties on your street that are similar to yours. You can request this data online via the VOA website or over the phone. Once you have this, the first type of evidence you can provide is the addresses of up to five comparable properties who are in a different band to you. A comparable property is one that is like yours based on location, style, age and size. You can also use sales information as evidence, but the sale of your property or a similar one must have taken place between April 1 1989 and March 31 1993. Within your challenge you need to include the addresses of neighbouring properties in lower council tax bands than you as well as a description of your house and any other supporting evidence you may have. If you do decide you want to challenge your band you can do this online via the government website. Alternatively you can also challenge by emailing ctinbox@hmrc.gov.uk