The consumer champion has previously explained how two simple checks can lower your Council Tax bill this year and forever – but it has to be done with care.
On ITV1’s This Morning, he explained: “Up to 400,000 people in England and Scotland are in the wrong band, a higher band, and I’ve been looking at how you can challenge this since 2007.
“Effectively, what you need to do is go onto voa.gov.uk to check your council tax band of an identical property, or if it’s Scotland, saa.gov.uk.
“If you’re in a higher band, the name is in identical properties, then you need to work out what bad you would have been in 1991 if that shows you had a band.
“Then you need to look at going forward to get your band lower.”
How to check and challenge your council tax band
Council tax bands were drawn up in 1991 based on drive-by valuations of homes at that time. They are subsequently out of date and many people may actually be in the wrong council tax band.
In 2007, financial expert and Money Saving Expert founder Martin Lewis started a campaign to show how you might be able to challenge it. The Check and Challenge approach made huge headlines that year and many people have been able to use it to save themselves money since then.
Here’s how it works:
The neighbour check
You can find out more about Martin Lewis’ method here – read it carefully before before making any challenge.
The Check and Challenge method has two steps and it is absolutely vital you do both before deciding whether to get your council tax banding assessed.
Step one involves finding out if your band is higher than neighbours in similar or identical properties. Thankfully this is public information so you don’t need to go and ask them.
England valuation bands are listed here , and the valuations are here .
The band of every property in Scotland can be found on the Scottish Assessors Association website .
All domestic properties in Wales are put into 9 tax bands (bands A to I). The tax bands are based on how much a home and the land it is on is worth.
The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) values properties for Council Tax purposes. They are the governments’ property experts for Wales and England.
‘What can you do if your council tax is going up?’ – @susannareid100 @MartinSLewis explains what you can do, as he points out that many people could be missing out on discounts. pic.twitter.com/VkucbcAS2K
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) April 1, 2025
When comparing your band with your neighbours’, make sure the properties are as close in size and value as possible, and would have been in 1991. If neighbours in similar properties are in a lower band than you, then you may have a claim.
However, you could land yourself in bother if you don’t do the next step. If your band is different to your neighbours’ and you’re in similar properties, then it could be that their band is wrong and not yours, and you could actually end up landing them with a larger bill if you appeal – you risk becoming an unpopular neighbour.
So here is an important next step before deciding to challenge…
The valuation check
A second crucial step is to estimate what your home was worth in 1991, as that’s when and how the council tax bands were defined.
If you bought your house after 1991, you can simply use its price and date of sale to do this. If you rent or bought earlier, you’ll need to find an estimated price. It’s also worth doing this with similar neighbouring properties.
To find a price quickly, you can use a website which offers free historic sales price information such as Zoopla or Rightmove . Enter your street name and it’ll tell you the prices of all properties sold there since 2000.
Find the most recent sale price of a similar property to yours in your street. Now note down both the price and the date of sale.
Once you have that information, you can use it to estimate what your property would’ve been worth back in 1991, and what band it’s in. There is a calculator you can use here , which uses house price data from Nationwide.
Recommended reading:
This will only give a rough indication, but it gives an idea. You may be in a higher band than your neighbours because they’re in the wrong band, not you. In that case, if you appeal and stay in the same band, but their band is increased, you might not make many friends.
Now you’ve worked out roughly what your property was worth in 1991, you can compare this to a table here to see what band you should have been put in, based on that home value.
How to challenge
If you’re convinced your property band is unfair after all the checks, you could challenge it.
In Scotland, the SAA deals with council tax bands. Enter your postcode in the council tax bands search box on the homepage. Select your property from the list.
If you want to challenge the banding, click on “Make a proposal”. You can then fill in an online form which will be sent to your local assessor, who will contact you.
But do remember, you can’t just ask for your band to be lowered, only for it to be reassessed, which means it could be moved up or down.
This is why it’s important to do both checks and think if you’ve added an extension to your home or bought extra land or outbuildings.
