Like many residents in my area I have just received a letter from an organisation offering to check the council tax banding of my house. The letter suggests that other houses in my street have a lower tax banding, which is hardly surprising as there are houses of different design (terraced, semi detached, detached, flats) and age. They say they will check my council tax banding and claim a refund on my behalf if I have been incorrectly banded. The fee for this if I/they win is a mere 30% of any refund. Oops, sorry, that should be 30% + VAT  – not immediately obvious and buried in the small print.

If you have received similar letters dump them in the recycling bin!

You can easily check your council tax banding for free by going to https://www.gov.uk/council-tax-bands. If you live in Scotland go to http://www.saa.gov.uk/. Enter your postcode and you’ll be able to see the band for each property in your area.

If you think your property is in the wrong band there is a link to a page where you can appeal against the banding, but think twice before doing it. The reassessment might decide that you should be in a higher band. And in one of my local forums someone confessed to appealing against their banding because it was higher than their neighbours. The result was that their neighbours’ tax band was increased. The appellant was not popular for a very long time!

There is more information on checking your band and the appeal process at http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/council-tax-bands-change