Martin Lewis fan gets £7,100 back in overpaid council tax by following advice

21 December 2023 , 11:15

1243     0

The success story was shared in the recent MSE newsletter (Image: ITV)

A Martin Lewis fan has shared how they managed to help their parents claim £7,100 in overpaid council tax - and many others could be due money back too.

The "cracking" story was shared in the recent MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE) newsletter which highlighted some of the money successes sent to the MSE team over the last year. This tale came from a person called Christos who wrote to the MSE team in November to tell them they had followed Martin Lewis's advice to help their parents.

Christos said their parents always believed they were in the wrong council tax band. This was because the majority of their neighbours - with similar or larger properties - were in a band lower. After hearing the MSE founder's tips on how to successfully challenge your council tax banding, Christos' parents applied and received confirmation that they had indeed been overpaying since 1996. This 27-year overpayment meant they were now due credit worth £7,100.

Christos wrote: "My parents have always believed that they were in the wrong council tax band, with the majority of their neighbours being a band lower for similar or larger properties. They applied and received confirmation that they've been overpaying since 1996, and were due credit of £7,100."

Martin Lewis has been campaigning on his issue for the last 15 years having launched his 10 minute check back in 2007. The newsletter linked to the MSE website page which explains everything you need to know about council tax bandings. Back when council tax was introduced, thousands of homes were put in the wrong band - according to Martin, it is as many as 400,000.

Martin Lewis issues 8-week warning to phone users ahead of huge price hikes

If you're in the wrong bracket, and are paying too much council tax as a result, you can backdate your refund all the way back to 1993 in some cases. However, this does depend on how long you have lived in the property.

The first thing to do is check what your neighbours are paying by going to the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) in England or the Scottish Assessors Association (SAA) in Scotland. If you're paying more than your neighbours, you move onto step two which is working out how much your house was worth in 1991.

To find this you can use a website which offers free historic sales price information, MSE says websites such as Nethouseprices, Zoopla and Rightmove offer this. Once you know that, you can see what band you should have been put in. However, it is always good to be aware that your council tax band can also go up as well as down. So if you get it wrong, and it's your neighbours who are in the wrong band, they could see their bills rise, while yours stay the same.

Ruby Flanagan