Martin Lewis urges people to check council tax as thousands could be owed refund

Jasper King

Published January 17, 2024 10:12am Updated January 17, 2024 10:59am

Martin Lewis featured — Martin Lewis said many people are caught out by the issue

Martin Lewis has said thousands could be in the wrong council tax band as he urged people to ‘check and challenge’ their bill.

Speaking on his ITV show last night, the money saving expert said many people are caught out by being in the wrong council tax band.

He said: ‘I have two checks, the first one is the neighbours check, is your band higher than similar homes? You can check your band and your neighbours band at gov.uk.

‘If you find you are in a higher band than neighbours with similar houses your next check is the valuation check.

‘You want to know how much your house was worth in 1991 because that’s how they choose what band you are in.

‘You then go and find an identical or similar house sold in the last five or six years and then convert it to 1991 prices. There are free check and challenge tools online to help you do this.

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The Martin Lewis Money Show 16.01.24 (Picture: ITV) — He explained how people can check and challenge their council tax band (Picture: ITV)

‘My big warning, only do this if you pass both checks. The fact that you are in a higher band than your neighours because for example maybe they are in too low a band. So if you don’t do the valuation check, you may not get your band lowered, you may get all their bands increased.’

If it turns out you have been paying too much, you will get a back-dated payout – and your neighbours might too.

Patrick and Helen from Norfolk carried out these exact checks and were awarded £1,755 and their bill went down from £245 to £200 a month.

Their neighbours also received rebates, with one home getting £7,058 back, and another £2,830. They also didn’t pay council tax for a year.

Martin also highlighted that some people don’t pay council tax like under 18s, full-time students and people with severe mental impairment (SMI), dementia,severe stroke and severe Parkinson’s.

He continued: ‘Then there is this hybrid one which is a living carer who works more than 35 hours a week and isn’t caring for their spouse, or partner, or a parent caring for their child who is under the age of 18, they will get carer’s allowance.

‘If there are two adults in the house you pay full council tax but if there is one person in the house they are entitled to the single person’s discount of 25%, even if they are living with somebody who is discounted for council tax or a living carer.

‘So if you live with three children, two full-time students, you are one adult, you get the single person’s discount, many people miss that particular one.