If you’ve moved house at any point in the last 31 years, there’s a good chance you might be owed money — and not just a few quid. According to Martin Lewis’ MoneySavingExpert (MSE), around 800,000 households across England, Scotland, and Wales are sitting on unclaimed Council Tax refunds worth over £141 million in total.
The revelation comes just as many Brits are feeling the pinch of ‘Awful April’, a month marked by rising household bills. Most councils have hiked Council Tax by 4.99% — the maximum allowed without triggering a local vote — while places like Bradford have gone even higher, with bills jumping a whopping 9.9%, reported Yorkshire Live.
Council Tax is meant to fund essential local services like bin collection, schools, parks, and, in some areas, emergency services. But the system is still based on what your house would’ve been worth back in 1991 (or 2003 in Wales), which many argue is wildly outdated.
The MSE team uncovered the overpayments through Freedom of Information requests, finding that many people ended up paying more than they owed simply because they moved and didn’t close their Council Tax accounts properly. “A Council Tax account will be in credit if you’ve paid more than you owe at any point,” MSE explained, and if you leave an area while your account’s still in credit, you could be due a refund.
It’s a common scenario: Council Tax is usually paid in ten monthly instalments, from April through January. If you move out in February but your payments were based on the whole year, you might’ve unknowingly covered more time than you lived there. Councils are supposed to refund the balance before closing the account, but that doesn’t always happen, especially if you didn’t pay by Direct Debit.
Many people miss out just because they didn’t cancel their payments when they moved, or they paid using older methods like cash or cheque, which are harder for councils to trace for refunds. Even those who’ve successfully had their Council Tax band lowered could be owed a bit back.
According to MSE, if you’ve moved any time since 1993 and didn’t pay by Direct Debit, it’s worth checking. Some councils still hold old credits that were never claimed, especially if people paid by standing order or over the counter.
So if you’ve moved in the last few decades and can’t remember sorting out your Council Tax properly, it might be time to dig through those old papers — there could be cash waiting.
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