Challenging your council tax band

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is a government body in England and Wales and an executive agency of HMRC. The Agency values properties for the purpose of Council Tax and for non-domestic rates in England and Wales. The council tax bands were set on 1 April 1991 for England and on 1 April 2003 for Wales and range from Band A - F. 

If you believe that your council tax listing is incorrect you can challenge this with the VOA. A recent press release from the VOA has highlighted that some 70,000 households are expected to contact them over the coming months to ask for a review of their Council Tax band. 

An appeal against your current band can be made online and you need to give a reason for your challenge and provide supporting evidence. Legally, the VOA can only review Council Tax bands where the claimant provides certain types of evidence to show their banding is wrong, or if it meets certain criteria. 

This includes:

• You disagree with an alteration to your properties banding made by the VOA.
• You are new to the property in question and feel the valuation band too high or low.
• The property is no longer a dwelling.
• The local area has changed.
• The property is new or has only recently become used for domestic purposes.
• Change in a property e.g., flats merged into a house of vice versa.
• The valuation band does not take into account a relevant decision of a local Valuation Tribunal or the High Court. 

When submitting an appeal, you should include the reasons why you think the Valuation List should be altered and include documentary evidence where possible. You can also appoint someone else to challenge your council tax listing on your behalf. 

If you live in Scotland, then you need to use the Scottish Assessors portal website to check your Council Tax band and if necessary, lodge a claim with them (known as a proposal).