Martin Lewis' Council Tax warning for anyone who has moved house this year
Money-saving guru Martin Lewis has urged all Brits who have moved house in the last six months to check their Council Tax band - as hundred of thousands of households are thought to be overpaying
Martin Lewis has urged Brits who have recently moved to make one Council Tax check that could be worth £1,000s. Earlier this year, more than 150 top-tier local authorities in England increased their Council Tax, with six areas given permission from the government to exceed the 4.99 per cent spike without triggering a local vote or referendum.
The news came alongside multiple bill hikes - including soaring energy costs, higher road taxes, and even a more expensive TV Licence - in what was nationally dubbed as ' Awful April '.
Used to fund services such as rubbish collection, roads, and street lighting - Council Tax is controversially based on the price your property would have sold for on the open market on April 1, 1991, in England, or 2003 in Wales. This means many Brits living in new build homes pay are on a higher tax band than those in million-pound houses that were built way before 1991.
However, it is thought that hundreds of thousands of homes across England and Scotland are thought to be in the wrong Council Tax band altogether. "Moving or just moved house?" Martin Lewis wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
"One of the most important things you should do is check whether you're in the right council tax band. You only have six months to make a formal challenge, after that it's much trickier."
As Martin explains on his MSE website, the valuation of Council Tax bands was a rushed job - and in an attempt to band every house in time for the 1991 ruling, desperate officials asked estate agents to help.
"They didn't have time to get the detailed information together, so [estate agents] set about doing it quickly by pairing up and driving down countless streets, allocating each property a band with just a glance," the money-saving expert wrote. "They became known as 'second-gear valuations' as they mostly never even stopped their cars, never mind got out of them."
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If you've just moved house - it's worth checking to see whether you're in the right band. You can start off by finding out if you're in a band higher than your neighbours, or similar properties in your area using the Government's website. This is a good indicator as to whether you're being overcharged.
But, it's important to understand that you can only ask to have your band revalued - and not just request if it can be lowered. This means you risk having your band (or your neighbour's band) increased - which has happened in the past.
If you're still certain you're in a higher band than you should be, you can calculate how much your house was worth in 1991 (if it's old enough) for free on housing websites such as Zoopla and Rightmove. This mainly applies to those living in England as Wales revalued its properties much more recently.
"In general you must've lived in the property for six months or less (it doesn't matter whether you own or rent, though if renting you should notify the landlord as a courtesy)," Martin added. "If you're able to challenge formally (also known as a 'proposal'), the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) must review your band. Although you don't have to officially provide evidence about nearby properties, we'd strongly suggest you don't skip that part.
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He also called for the immediate nationalisation of SpaceX and Starlink because of their importance to national security. Tesla subsidies Tesla, Mr Musk's electric car company, has made substantial amounts of money from government green energy programmes. This includes more than $11 billion it has made selling clean air 'credits' to rival car makers under a carbon emissions scheme, which have accounted for about one third of the company's profits since 2012, according to analysis by Axios. Under Joe Biden, federal grants worth up to $7,500 were also introduced for drivers who buy electric vehicle purchases. Both of these money-spinning schemes are threatened by Mr Trump's tax and spending bill and the president has suggested this is why Mr Musk has turned on him. Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social: 'I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!' Analysts at JPMorgan have suggested Tesla could lose $3.2 billion in profits as a result of Mr Trump's tax and spending bill, which axes the subsidies and targets carbon trading schemes. The 'big, beautiful bill' White House aides at first insisted that the dispute between the two men came down to differences over Mr Trump's flagship piece of legislation, the 'big, beautiful bill', rather than a deeper divide. Mr Musk has claimed the bill will cause the US national debt to balloon, condemning Americans to 'debt slavery'. His public comments have emboldened some Republicans in the House and Senate to also change their minds and voice opposition. The billionaire previously made life difficult for Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, in December when he rallied opposition against a bipartisan spending bill to avert a government shutdown. Now, his attacks on Mr Trump's signature policy could create serious headaches. The president and his Republican allies are grappling with wafer-thin majorities in Congress, meaning a careful balance of promises and threats will be needed to keep enough law makers on board. Insiders have also spelt out the bill's importance. If the first 100 days of his presidency was about shock and awe, pushing through hundreds of executive orders, the second 100 days is supposed to be about working the phones and mobilising support in Congress to pass this legislation. Mr Musk's intervention has put the entire project, and a chunk of Mr Trump's tax-cutting legacy, on the brink of collapse. Deportation Mr Musk's origin story has a wrinkle. The South African arrived in the US to pursue graduate studies at Stanford University during the 1990s. But he ditched classes and instead used his time to launch the first of his companies, Zip2, which he later sold for $300 million. That put him in breach of his visa and meant that he worked illegally, according to documents and legal experts cited by the Washington Post. His enemies have long used those details to call him an illegal alien. As the row accelerates, Steve Bannon, the former Trump adviser, has reportedly advised Mr Trump to launch a formal investigation into Mr Musk's immigration status – and have him 'deported'. 'I am of the strong belief that Musk is an illegal alien and should be deported from the country immediately,' Mr Bannon told the New York Times. It seems unlikely that Mr Musk will end up on a plane to El Salvador with other illegal immigrants – but the threats are a sign of just how much hostility he now faces within Trumpland. The future of the Republican Party Mr Musk and Mr Trump made for odd ideological bedfellows. Mr Musk, from the tech right, is a libertarian, intent on reducing the federal government to dust … all the better to allow his business empire to thrive. Mr Trump wants to use all the agencies at his disposal to promote the interests of the blue-collar voters who back him and to crush his opponents. Their alliance meant Mr Musk could pump more than $200 million into the 2024 election, helping Mr Trump win battleground states and Republicans to win the Senate and House. 'Without me, Trump would have lost the election,' Mr Musk declared on Thursday. 'Such ingratitude,' he added in a follow-up post. Mr Musk had already signalled he might not have more time or money for politics. And, without his largesse, the rupture with the president could spell doom for Republicans in tight districts. Impeachment Mr Trump is no stranger to the impeachment process: in fact he is the only president to be impeached twice, both of the trials occurring in his first term. On both occasions he was saved by a Republican firewall in the Senate, with members of his own party circling the waggons to protect him, paving the way for his political comeback and election win last year. On Thursday, their relationship breaking down while the world watched on in real time, Mr Musk suggested the president should be impeached, convicted and replaced with JD Vance, the vice-president. So far, that looks unlikely: Republicans control both chambers of Congress, and it's unlikely the Tesla billionaire has enough support among senators to reach the two-thirds threshold to boot him out of office. But it's a damaging intervention, nonetheless, because Mr Musk has declared his former ally unfit for office.
