What's the council tax there?
CJ Bloor's council tax checker gives the real 2026-27 charge for every band in a billing authority, from the government's own tables. Enter a postcode to compare two houses on your shortlist that sit in different boroughs.
How council tax bands work
Every home in England is placed in a band from A to H by the Valuation Office Agency, and the band rests on one number: what the property would have sold for on 1 April 1991. Wales was revalued in 2003 and runs A to I; Scotland keeps its own assessors. Nothing about the current asking price changes the band.
Each band is a fixed fraction of the Band D charge. The council sets Band D each April and every other band follows arithmetically, which is why the table above only needs one authority to price all eight.
Because English bands are frozen at 1991 values, they ignore thirty-five years of uneven growth. A terrace that was Band C in 1991 stays Band C at any price it reaches today.That quirk cuts both ways: it keeps some bills low, and it is the reason a band can sometimes be successfully challenged where an area has changed character since.
Why the same band costs more a few miles away
Two identical houses either side of a borough boundary can carry bills hundreds of pounds apart. The headline figure is really a stack of precepts: the billing authority takes the largest share, a county council adds its element in two-tier areas, and separate levies for adult social care, policing, fire and rescue, and sometimes a parish council sit on top.
If a shortlist straddles a boundary, run both postcodes through the checker above and compare like for like. The difference is a fixed cost for as long as you own the house, and it never appears in the listing.
Discounts many households never claim
The table above shows the two-adult charge and the single-occupant rate beside it. Beyond those, several reductions go unclaimed simply because nobody told the council:
Living alone
One adult in the property brings 25% off the full bill. It is applied once the council is told, not automatically on moving in, so tell them.
Full-time students
Students are disregarded entirely. A household of students usually pays nothing; a mixed household counts only its non-students.
Adapted for disability
A home adapted for a disabled resident can be charged at the band below its actual band, the one reduction that moves the band itself.
Severe mental impairment
Someone medically certified as severely mentally impaired is disregarded, which can halve a two-adult bill or clear a single-person one.
Low income
Every authority runs a means-tested Council Tax Reduction scheme. The rules are local, so the only reliable answer is the council's own page.
Empty properties
A short exemption may apply while a home stands empty and unfurnished, but long-term empty homes usually attract a premium instead, worth knowing if a renovation will run on.
Could the property be in the wrong band?
A meaningful number of English homes are thought to sit in the wrong band, usually too high, because the 1991 exercise was done at speed. The check costs nothing:compare the bands of similar houses in the same street on the VOA register linked above. Where the neighbours' banding genuinely disagrees with yours, a challenge is free, made online to the VOA, and a successful one is often backdated to when you moved in.
Challenge with evidence or not at all: the VOA can move a band up as well as down. It is rare, but a speculative challenge on an extended house is how it happens.
What to check before you buy
Confirm the band with the VOA, not the listing
Agents' particulars state the band wrongly often enough that the thirty-second check is worth it, and a house extended by the last owner can be rebanded after the sale, so a low band on an enlarged property may not survive completion.
Use this year's rate, not a remembered one
Rates change every April and rarely downwards. The checker above reads the current year's tables; budget from those, not from what the seller says they pay.
New builds arrive unbanded
The VOA assigns a band after completion, and it can land higher than the developer's estimate. Until it exists, any council tax figure in the brochure is a guess.
Flats split or merged deserve a second look
A house converted into flats, or two dwellings knocked into one, may still be banded for its old configuration, which a sale tends to flush out.
Council tax is one line in the running cost of a home, alongside insurance, energy, water and the maintenance the building will actually need. Ourrunning cost estimator puts the lines together for a property you are weighing up.
Comparing two areas? Compare the buildings too.
Council tax differences between boroughs run to a few hundred pounds a year. The difference between a sound house and one with a failing roof runs to tens of thousands, and only one of those numbers is printed anywhere before you buy.
Common questions
How do I find out which band a property is in?
The Valuation Office Agency holds the official banding for every property in England, searchable free by postcode on GOV.UK. Listings sometimes state it wrongly, so for a property you are buying it is worth the thirty seconds to check the register rather than trust the brochure.
Why are bands still based on 1991 values?
England has never revalued: every property is banded by what it would have sold for on 1 April 1991, with new-builds assessed on a notional 1991 value. That is why a modest terrace and a much newer flat can share a band, and why challenging a band is only worthwhile with evidence of how comparable properties were banded.
Can the band change when I buy a house?
A sale itself does not trigger rebanding, but previous improvements can: if the last owner extended the house, the VOA may review the band when it next changes hands. A significantly extended property advertised in a low band may not stay there — worth knowing before you budget.
Who pays council tax between exchange and completion?
Liability follows occupation and ownership from completion day. Your conveyancer notifies the council; the seller pays to completion and you pay from it, apportioned automatically rather than through the purchase contract.