Martin Lewis issues warning to homeowners who could be owed thousands

martin lewis warning homeowners council tax band

(Image credit: Getty)

By Aleesha Badkar 2020-01-08T11:30:00Z

Martin Lewis has issued an urgent warning to homeowners.

The money saving expert, who regularly dishes out advice and tips and tricks to look after your bank account, has issued a warning to homeowners who could be losing out on thousands.

Speaking on his TV show The Martin Lewis Money Show, the financial expert revealed that those who own a home could be spending more money than they need to on one particular thing – council tax.

Martin explained the issue that surrounds council tax bands, revealing that it is believed that over 400,000 homes in the country are in the wrong bands.

MORE: Martin Lewis issues urgent warning to homeowners who risk £1,000 fine if they don’t do this

This means that those who own those hundreds of thousands of homes would be paying more than towards their council tax than they are required to.

The TV expert even revealed that there was one man who told him that he had been in the wrong tax band since the 1980’s.

He said that the man disclosed to him that he had only noticed the mistake when he discovered that his tax band was higher than that of his neighbours’, realising that he had paid £4,680 more in council tax than he needed to.

After consulting Martin and listening to his advice, the man in question was fortunately able to get his money reimbursed.

When speaking about the topic on his show, the financial expert advised that viewers should double check their council tax band and can even challenge their current band, with the potential to get a tax rebate that could go back years.

To check your council tax band, all you have to do is visit Gov.uk and enter your address.

MORE: Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis reveals genius hack to get cheaper car insurance and save hundreds of pounds

If you think the band is incorrect, the website explains how you can go about challenging it.

You can contact the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) directly, who will tell you how your council tax band was decided and give you the opportunity to challenge it.

Aleesha Badkar

Aleesha is digital shopping writer at woman&home - so whether you're looking for beauty, fashion, health or home buys, she knows all the best places to splash your cash. She earned an MA in Magazine Journalism from City, University of London in 2017 after graduating from University of Leeds in 2014 with a BA in English and Spanish (which took her to Madrid for a fun Rioja and tapas-packed year). Aleesha has worked for woman&home since 2019, when she joined the team as their digital news writer. A year on the news team gained her quick and reactive writing skills and a love for breaking stories, invaluable insight into where to get the best lifestyle releases first, an AOP awards nomination and the nickname ‘crazy watch lady’ after she became so obsessed with the royals that she followed breaking news alerts on her Apple Watch.

Before joining the woman&home team, Aleesha wrote for their sister site GoodtoKnow, where she covered celebrity news, health advice and where to snap up the cheapest lifestyle buys. With a background in beauty, Aleesha has also written for Stylist and Women’s Health where she developed an understanding into what makes a stellar product and which brands are worth paying attention to. She never leaves the house without a slick of lip balm and a good slathering of SPF, cannot live without an eyelash curler by her side and is always on the hunt for new lipsticks to add to her ‘Lipstick of the Day’ Instagram story highlight (and color-coordinated collection).

But it’s not just beauty buys Aleesha can help you with. Social media savviness, strong PR relationships and a need to stay in the know mean she’s all about the latest fashions, clever gadgets and reliable lifestyle buys too. She loves indulging in an interior craze (with a bedroom drowned in prints, plants and pink), is a regular visitor to the Missoma and Edge of Ember 'New In' pages and can’t resist the allure of a kitchen gadget—just ask her three coffee machines.

When she’s not playing around with new products and testing anything she can get her hands on, Aleesha spends most of her time with her head in a current bestseller, catching up on the latest Netflix craze with her sister, trying out new recipes, drinking wine with her bestie and (in non-COVID times) has been known to be a bit of a jetsetter amongst her friendship group. Oh and she makes the most of her Disney+ subscription by watching the Marvel films on repeat (definitely not just for Chris Evans...).

Follow her latest shopping & lifestyle advice, beauty insights and social antics on Instagram at @aleeshabadkar.

Twitter: @aleeshabadkar

LinkedIn: aleesha-badkar

Email: aleesha.badkar@futurenet.com