Everyone who bought a house after 1993 could be due a council tax refund, experts have warned. Martin Lewis, 49, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, has revealed that an estimated £230 million in tax could be owed to the British public by councils across the UK according to an investigation by MoneySavingExpert.com
“Councils are sitting on a staggering amount of money,” he told the Express . “At least £230 million spread across 1.7 million accounts, which works out at an average of well over £100 sitting in each closed account.” House owners were advised to read the Money Saving Expert guide instead of calling their council as it would “likely waste people’s time.” The website shares a variety of ways residents can check if they are owed money.
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He said: “While councils do make efforts to track down those who are owed, many don’t do it well enough, especially when people have moved out of their area and are no longer their responsibility.
“That means we all need to take responsibility for ourselves.”
The report found that households are more likely to be due a refund if they relocated in the last 29 years.
However, this is only the case for savers who were not paying their council tax by direct debit.
Credit in accounts collects over time as households pay council tax a month or even a year ahead, which means people commonly have leftover credit when they move homes.
Credit will also compound if a person overpaid their council tax bill, if a resident moved out, or someone living in the property died although this credit should usually be refunded automatically.
People who moved houses within the same local authority area are less likely to be owed money because they would have used up the credit from their old account.
Conversely, households that didn’t leave a new address when they moved to a new local authority area are more likely to be owed a refund.
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