The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is responsible for making sure that 27 million properties across England and Wales are in the correct Council Tax band.
As Council Tax bills are being issued, we expect to see an increase in people challenging their band over the coming months.
If you’re struggling to pay your Council Tax bill, you should first contact your local council. They may be able to offer support, such as discounts, exemptions, or payment plans.
If you’re thinking about challenging your Council Tax band, there are a few areas to consider. These include your legal rights and the evidence you’ll need to provide.
Our step-by-step guide will help you learn more about the process and decide whether making a challenge is right for you.
Understanding your options
There are two types of band challenges – proposals and band reviews. The type of challenge you can submit depends on your circumstances:
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Proposals – you can make a proposal if you have been paying Council Tax on your property for less than six months, if the VOA has changed your band in the last six months, or if there has been a physical change to your local area. By law, we must review your band if you submit a proposal. You can also make a proposal if you want to remove a property from the Council Tax list, more guidance about this can be found on GOV.UK.
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Band reviews – if you have been paying Council Tax for more than six months and think your band is wrong, you can request an informal band review. While there’s no legal requirement for us to consider these, we want to do our best to make sure customers are in the right band. We take forward band reviews where there is strong supporting evidence that shows a band is wrong.
If you’re thinking about challenging your band, there are some key steps to follow.
1. Check your Council Tax band
Begin by checking both your and your neighbours’ Council Tax bands on GOV.UK.
This will help you spot any differences.
Keep in mind that differences do not always mean your band is wrong. There are a few reasons for this.
Council Tax bands cover a range of values. This means properties of different types and values can be placed in the same band.
Some properties that look the same from the outside may have been improved and not yet sold or have different characteristics inside, keeping them in the same band.
2. Collect evidence to support your challenge
Our goal is simple: we want every customer to be in the correct Council Tax band. But that doesn’t mean everyone has a legal right to challenge their Council Tax band, or that we are required to consider every request that comes in.
If you don’t have a legal right to challenge, you can only request a band review. If you are requesting a band review, you must provide evidence which shows your band is wrong.
This helps us identify band reviews most likely to result in a change. We can then review any potential errors and deal with cases effectively.
This evidence is usually up to five properties similar to yours (sometimes called comparable properties).
To decide whether properties can be compared, we consider four main details:
For more guidance on what makes a property comparable, read our evidence blog.
You can also use sales information as evidence. The sale of your property or a similar property must have taken place between the following dates to be valid evidence:
- for England: 1 April 1989 and 31 March 1993
- for Wales: 1 April 2001 and 31 March 2003
Read more about using evidence from house prices.
You must provide strong supporting evidence for us to accept a band review request. Without it, we will not be able to review your band.
You don’t need to submit evidence to support a proposal. If you are making a proposal because your property’s band needs to be deleted, read our deletion guidance for more information.
3. Submitting your challenge
Once you’ve gathered your evidence, you can submit your challenge. You can do this through our online service.
You can also submit your challenge by email or letter.
Our online form is available for those making proposals.
4. Wait for a decision
After submitting your challenge, we will review your evidence and make a decision.
Challenges have three outcomes; your band can go up, down, or stay the same. We may also review the bands of similar neighbouring properties to check that they are correct, which means their Council Tax bands could be moved up or down too.
Any changes to your bill will be handled by your local council.
At this time of year, we receive a high volume of Council Tax queries. We prioritise proposals as these are cases where customers have a legal right to challenge their Council Tax band. Find out more about the time it is currently taking us to deal with Council Tax proposals and band reviews.
While you wait for a decision, you must continue paying your Council Tax bill as normal. Not paying could lead to penalties or enforcement action by your local council. You will be refunded for any overpayments.
