Many households pay council tax they do not owe. A parent with dementia can make a home exempt, or take 25% off the bill, and a council can backdate it to when the conditions were first met, but only if someone claims. The same is true of the carer who lives in, the adapted bathroom, the annexe where a grandparent lives, the relative who has moved into a care home, and the reduction scheme a low-income household never applied for. Nobody sends the form. You have to know the rule exists, find the evidence and ask.
Each of our guides takes one exemption, discount, reduction scheme or appeal and walks through it in order: who qualifies, the evidence the council or valuation office expects, the forms, the deadlines, how far back a claim can go, and what to do when the answer is no. There are guides for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland's rates, for the Council Tax Reduction schemes of England's largest councils, and for pensioner rates concessions and property-tax relief in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Every guide is independent: we are not a council, the Valuation Office Agency or any government body, and we do not give legal or debt advice. Challenging a band through the official route is free, and every guide says so. If you are behind on payments or have received a summons or liability order, the free debt advice services (StepChange, National Debtline and Citizens Advice) are the right first call, and our guides point you to them.