Why are so many houses in the wrong Council Tax band?
When Council Tax was first introduced in 1993 the price of the tax was based on the property’s value. Properties were classified into different tax brackets or bands. These bands relate to the value of the property in 1991. Due to the huge task of assessing every property in the whole of the UK a lot are in the wrong band. The job was rushed and in many areas it was outsourced to estate agents. Sometimes they would perform what the industry call “second gear” valuations – they wouldn’t even stop the car. Other houses were valued by memory, where the agent would give best guesses on roads they were familiar with. A lot of mistakes were made. If your property was incorrectly valued you could have been paying too much council tax for years.
