The Band Ledger · Guide · England only
If you have just moved house in England and become the council tax payer, you may have a statutory proposal right — a legal right to make the Valuation Office Agency look at your band and give you a written decision. That is a right to be heard, not a win. Screen neighbouring homes first, then file free with the VOA.
This guide is for England. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland use different rules. The most common case is a new taxpayer: you have been paying council tax on the property for less than 6 months. GOV.UK also lists other circumstances that give a legal right to propose a change.
If you are past the 6-month mark and nothing about the property has changed, you are usually on the informal band-review route instead — still free, but without the same right to a decision or an appeal.
People mix these up. A council tax proposal is the formal route for a new taxpayer (and a few other legal-right cases). A band review is the informal route for everyone else who thinks the band is wrong.
Proposal
Legal right to be heard
Band review
Informal request
Both routes are free if you file yourself at GOV.UK. Paying us is never required to challenge a band.
On a proposal, the VOA must consider the case and send a written decision — usually within 2 months. They can confirm the band, reduce it, or raise it. If they refuse and you had a legal right to challenge, you can appeal to the Valuation Tribunal for England, for free, within 3 months. Tribunal cases take about 9 months.
Keep paying your council tax bill while the case is open. A challenge does not pause the bill.
A statutory right is a right to be heard, not to win. Of the 24,250 proposals the VOA resolved in 2023–24, only 19% ended in a reduction and 70% left the band unchanged — precisely because anyone in the window can file, evidence or not. Band reviews, which require evidence up front, reduced the band in 41% of resolved cases.
A band can also go up, and a change can affect neighbouring homes. Across all challenge routes the published increase rate was less than 1% in 2023–24. Rare is not the same as impossible — which is why we show evidence against a challenge as well as evidence for one.
Source: Valuation Office Agency — Council Tax: challenges and changes in England and Wales, March 2024 (29 August 2024).
Neighbour evidence is what the VOA actually weighs. Enter your postcode on the homepage, pick the exact home, and read the comparable bands before you file. Most bands are right. If ours looks consistent, or the records are incomplete, we will say so.
Filing a proposal yourself with the VOA is always free. A paid evidence pack or no-win-no-fee filing service is optional, and only worth considering after a strong screen. We do not sell help on a weak case.
The official route is free and does not go through us. Use these pages to check the rules and file:
If you became the council tax payer in England within the last 6 months, you usually have a legal right to make a proposal. The Valuation Office Agency must review it and send a written decision. That is a right to be heard, not a guaranteed reduction.
A proposal is the formal challenge route for people with a legal right — most often new occupiers in their first six months. You do not have to prove the band is wrong before the VOA will look. Filing the proposal with the VOA is free.
No. In 2023–24 only 19% of resolved proposals ended in a reduction, because anyone in the window can file, evidence or not. A statutory right is a right to a decision, not to a win.
Yes. A review can leave the band unchanged, reduce it, or (rarely) raise it. Across all challenge routes in 2023–24, less than 1% ended with a higher band. That is why we screen neighbouring homes first.
No. Checking and challenging through the VOA is always free. Our neighbour check is also free. A paid evidence pack or no-win-no-fee filing service is optional, and only worth considering after a strong screen.
Free council tax screening
Start with your postcode. We will show the evidence we can verify and say plainly when it is not enough. Then you can file free with the VOA if you still want to.
Check your band free