Overview
- Which? publicised mid-June survey results showing about 54% of people who challenged their council tax band had it lowered while roughly 1% saw an increase.
- The watchdog tells people to start on the GOV.UK council tax band page and to compare their property with neighbours and use house-price tools such as Zoopla to estimate 1991 values.
- Challenges must go through the Valuation Office Agency in England and Wales or the Scottish Assessors in Scotland and the VOA says reviews can take up to four months.
- A review can lower, keep the same, or raise a band and any change can affect neighbours' bills; successful reductions may bring backdated refunds to when the owner moved in.
- The underlying problem is that most English bands still use 1991 valuations while Wales revalued in 2003 and Scotland uses a separate system, which helps explain why a full revaluation of England has not happened.