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" It&amp;#039;s the one bill we all have to pay, but check you&amp;#039;re not handing over the wrong amount. It&amp;#039;s estimated that up to 400,000 homes in England and Scotland could be paying the wrong Council Tax, mostly due to errors in original assessments. In some cases, this means householders have paid thousands of pounds too much, and may be entitled to a refund. In others, they may have paid too little, and could face higher bills if they challenge their banding. Council Tax bands range from A, the cheapest, for properties valued at more than \u00A340,000, to H, for properties worth more than \u00A3320,000. &amp;#039;The level your Council Tax band is set at varies depending where you live,&amp;#039; says Nick Hill from the Money Advice Service, moneyadviceservice.org. &amp;#039;Welsh homes were re-evaluated in 2003, so are less likely to be in the wrong band, while homes in Northern Ireland pay rates instead.&amp;#039; HOW YOUR BAND IS ASSIGNED  The crucial point is that your home isn&amp;#039;t banded on its current market value, but what it was worth on the open market on 1 April, 1991, the date Council Tax was introduced. Properties that didn&amp;#039;t exist then but have been built, or altered since, are assessed as though they did. Any rise or fall in house prices, caused by changes in the housing market, doesn&amp;#039;t affect the Council Tax valuation. HOW DO I CHECK MY BAND AND THE 1991 PRICE? Visit gov.uk/council-tax-bands. &amp;#039;You&amp;#039;ll find a free historic estimate of your home&amp;#039;s value at the last sale by using comparison websites such as zoopla.co.uk. You can then use this to work out the 1991 value with the help of the dedicated calculator on moneysavingexpert.com,&amp;#039; says Nick Hill. &amp;#039;Then compare it to the Council Tax band limits using the grid devised by consumer association Which? at which.co.uk.&amp;#039;  I THINK I&amp;#039;M PAYING TOO MUCH If you want to compare your property with neighbouring homes, use their address instead. The information is freely available. Or you could ask your neighbours directly. But tread carefully as you might all lose out. For instance, if you&amp;#039;ve converted the loft to add an extra bedroom, the band may have changed to reflect the fact that a bigger house is worth more, but the new band would only come into effect once the property was sold. So if you recently bought the house, your band may well be higher than your neighbours&amp;#039; even if they too have an extra bedroom but have been living in the house from before the room was added. &amp;#039;If you challenge the amount you&amp;#039;re paying, there&amp;#039;s a chance it could go up instead of down,&amp;#039; warns Nick Hill. &amp;#039;Or, it could be that your neighbours&amp;#039; Council Tax will go up and yours will remain unchanged, so consider carefully how strong your claim is before pushing ahead.&amp;#039; WHAT ABOUT NEW PROPERTIES?  If you&amp;#039;re moving into a new home, or a house that&amp;#039;s been renovated recently, it may not have been assigned a band yet by the local authority, or it may have a provisional banding. Ask the vendor or contact the local authority. CAN I CHALLENGE THE BANDING?  Yes, in England, contact the Valuation Office Agency and in Scotland go to Scottish Assessors. Find contact details at gov.uk. WHAT IF I HAVEN&amp;#039;T PAID ENOUGH?\u00A0 &amp;#039;You shouldn&amp;#039;t be asked to pay backdated tax, as the error isn&amp;#039;t yours,&amp;#039; says Nick Hill. &amp;#039;But you&amp;#039;ll need to pay more from your next bill.&amp;#039; From: House Beautiful magazine Keep up-to-date with our inspiring ideas, latest looks, real-life homes and expert advice by signing up for our FREE newsletter\u2026  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.housebeautiful.co.uk/lifestyle/news/a616/are-you-paying-too-much-council-tax/>