Martin Lewis: we need YOUR help with a massive council tax banding scandal

Martin Lewis has been instrumental in raising awareness of the scandal of incorrect council tax banding. It is a widespread issue that affects potentially hundreds of thousands of people. We know all about this – because myself and my partner Nicola Jeffery are one such household.

However, it’s not just us. Our entire council estate of around 400 properties is almost all incorrectly banded. This potentially means our friends and neighbours are owed hundreds of thousands of pounds. Yet, despite some of us getting together to launch challenges to our banding – we’ve just hit brick walls, excuse the pun.

Council tax banding: a massive scandal

In the UK, council tax bands were established based on property valuations from 1991. They determine the amount homeowners pay in council tax. Over time, property values have changed significantly, leading to concerns that many homes are incorrectly banded – resulting in unfair tax burdens.

However, as financial journalist Martin Lewis also pointed out, the valuation process in 1991 was a sham. Civil servants were quite literally driving around in cars, looking at the outside of properties and guessing what the value was. Of course, this was rushed because of the scandal and then collapse of the opposed poll tax system.

So, Lewis has been at the forefront of addressing this issue. He has been advocating for households to verify and, if necessary, challenge their council tax bands to ensure fair taxation.

Council tax bands in England and Scotland are based on property valuations from April 1991, while in Wales, they are based on 2003 valuations.

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is responsible for maintaining the accuracy of council tax bands, but widespread revaluations have not occurred, leading to persistent inaccuracies.

Martin Lewis believes that up to 400,000 homes in England and Scotland are in the wrong council tax band, potentially leading to significant overpayments.

Martin Lewis: at the forefront of the issue

This widespread issue affects a substantial number of households, underscoring the importance of addressing banding inaccuracies.

Since 2007, Martin Lewis, founder of moneysavingexpert.com, has campaigned to help homeowners identify and rectify incorrect council tax banding. He developed a “Check & Challenge” system, guiding individuals through two primary steps:

Neighbours Check: compare your council tax band with similar properties in your area. If your band is higher than that of comparable homes, it may indicate an error.
Valuation Check: estimate what your property’s value would have been in 1991 (for England and Scotland) or 2003 (for Wales) using historical data and online tools. This helps determine if your current band aligns with past valuations.

If discrepancies are found, Lewis advises homeowners to challenge their band through the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) in England and Wales or the Scottish Assessors’ Association (SAA) in Scotland. Successful challenges can lead to a rebanding and potential refunds for overpaid taxes, sometimes amounting to thousands of pounds.

However, for us, none of this has worked.

400 properties all with the incorrect council tax banding

Me and Nicola realised there was a problem well over a year ago. Our two up, two down, mid terraced council house (kitchen/diner, one reception, two bedrooms, toilet and shower room, small front and back garden) is currently Band D. in our borough of Bromley in London, this puts our council tax bill at nearly £2,000 a year; or £195 a month.

The implication is that our house was worth over £68,000 in 1991. This is an absolute nonsense. In 1995, the same type of property not 20m from us sold for £58,000 in 1995.

However, this is the problem. When you challenge your council tax bad, the VOA will only accept example property sales from 1 April 1989 to 31 March 1993, if your property is in England. Yet the online register of house sales is only available after 1995.

The whole thing is a stich up.

We know of dozens of properties on our estate that have different (correct) bands where people have challenged it after moving in (in the allotted six-month window). But most of us have lived on the estate for years. The VOA will not accept these properties as evidence, either. It has stated that because they won their cases at a tribunal, it cannot take then into consideration.

All this is also despite us leafleting our entire estate of around 400 properties. We explained the situation to our neighbours, held an open day at our house, and got dozens of our friends and neighbours to challenge their council tax bands, too:

So, this happened today @itvMLshow @MartinSLewis #MartinLewis: we're organising 400 properties on our estate which are ALL the wrong council tax band. Had an open house today where dozens of people passed through to do their challenges to the VO & join a WhatsApp group #FightBack pic.twitter.com/AcRldHvoxX

— Steve Topple (@MrTopple) February 20, 2024

But we all got the same response. It was a “no” from the VOA. And because none of us fall under the six-month rule, we cannot appeal the decision. Most of the estate is social housing, as well – and the majority of it has been that way since 1991.

Please help us Martin Lewis!

Meanwhile, the UK government has refused to act. It knows there is a problem but has so far refused to do a revaluation exercise as it says it will cost people money. More likely that what it really means is that it will cost IT money, having to pay out millions upon millions to people who have overpaid for decades.

We calculated that one of our neighbours, who has been in their house since 1991 and paid full council tax every year, is owed over £10,000.

After we tweeted at the Martin Lewis Show earlier in the year, someone from his team did reach out. They asked us to email them, which we did. However, we never got a response.

Martin Lewis’s campaign has empowered many homeowners to take control of their council tax payments by verifying and challenging incorrect banding. Now, we need his help. As a journalist, I know this is a huge story. 400 households all incorrectly banded? It should be a massive scandal – except so far, none one wants to listen.

How to check and then challenge your council tax band:

You can check your council tax band, check the band of other properties in your postcode, and then challenge you council tax band here: https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/check-council-tax-band/search

The government will want evidence as to why you think your council tax band is wrong. This could be that an identical property to yours is a different band. To find this out you can also use the above website, to show other house’s council tax bands.

But the best evidence you can have is showing that the price of yours or a similar property’s house in 1991 would put you in a different band. 1991 was the year the government set everyone’s council tax bands. These were based on the value of the property then. The bands were:

Band Value at 1 April 1991

A up to £40,000

B £40,001 to £52,000

C £52,001 to £68,000

D £68,001 to £88,000

E £88,001 to £120,000

F £120,001 to £160,000

G £160,001 to £320,000

H more than £320,000

So, use https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices.html to check whether any properties in your postcode were sold in 1991, or a few years after. If there aren’t any, then use another postcode that has the same type of property as yours.

If you can find one that was sold, then it will indicate what band your property should be in now.

You also need to find five other properties that have the correct council tax band already.

Featured image via the Canary