COUNCIL TAX REBANDING

This tip applies in England and Scotland only. In Wales homes were revalued in 2005 and in Northern Ireland they were valued in 2007 for the new rates system. They are much less likely to be wrong.

You may have been paying the wrong amount of council tax since it began in 1993. Here is how to get it back.

When the hated poll tax was replaced with council tax in the early 1990s every home had to be valued so it could be placed in one of the eight bands that fix the share of the local tax that each home has to pay.

This valuation was done quickly and cheaply, sometimes by estate agents literally driving slowly down the street and jotting down the value of the homes. Many of these values were wrong. And they can be challenged.

Step 1: check the band of similar homes in your street. You can do that by putting in your postcode at www.voa.gov.uk in England www.saa.gov.uk in Scotland. If your home is banded above similar homes it may be worth asking for a rebanding.

Step 2: check if the band your home is in seems about right. The bands were fixed in April 1991 so you have to work out your home’s value then. Broadly speaking a house worth £100,000 today was worth between £30,000 and £45,000 in April 1991. You can get an estimate of what your home was worth then by checking its current price at www.nethouseprices.com and then putting that figure into www.nationwide.co.uk/hpi. In Date 1 put the current price and 2009 Q1. And for Date 2 put 1991 Q2. Check out the bands at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_Tax#Current_bands

If either of these tests indicates your home may be in the wrong band that is a good enough reason to ask for it to be reviewed. Contact the listing officer in England or the assessor in Scotland – find out who at www.voa.gov.uk/where/index.htm or www.saa.gov.uk/saacontacts.php.

If the value is reduced it will be applied back to 1993. Of course it is possible for the valuer to move your home to a higher band. If that happens then the change will only happen for the future.

Note that when a home is sold it can be revalued if it has been improved, for example by an extension or loft conversion.