The issue applies to hundreds of thousands of homes
Martin Lewis has warned home owners about an important deadline date they need to know about. The consumer expert warned it could be “very difficult” to address the issue once you have passed a key 6-month timeframe.
A woman called into his BBC podcast as she and her partner were buying their first home. They were moving from a small flat into a three-floor, three-bedroom house. They were concerned about what household bills would suddenly jump up as they moved into a much larger property. They asked for Mr Lewis’ help as they had “no idea how to estimate what our bills are going to change to be”. Mr Lewis ran through the key costs they should consider.
One of these was council tax. The woman confirmed she was moving into a property in England but she didn’t know which council tax band they would be in.
Given this information, Mr Lewis suggested: “You can go onto gov.uk, and you can do a council tax check on the new property. The band will be public, and then you take that band to the local council authority’s website, and then you find out what that band pays in that authority, and you will know what you’re going to pay in council tax. And it’s important to check that.”
But the consumer champion had an important word of warning here. He said that the subject of council tax had set off a “flashing alarm” in his mind. He urged the new home owner that there is a “really important” rule to know here.
Mr Lewis urged: “400,000 homes in the UK are in the wrong council tax band. Some of them are in too high a council tax band. You can challenge that, but it is very difficult to challenge that once you have lived in a property for more than six months.
“So, once you get into this property, one of your must-do jobs is to go and check whether it looks like you’re in the right council tax band. If you are, great, move on. If you’re not, you need to start this within the first six months, because it’s just so much easier to challenge within six months of moving into a property.”
Mr Lewis told the caller that there are free guides online that can take you through the process of challenging your council tax step by step. If you have historically been on too high a council tax band, you could get a hefty amount back from your local council.
One success story shared by Money Saving Expert, which Mr Lewis founded, involved a man who was repaid £7,600 after being on the wrong band for 18 years.
