Dozens of households who spent up to 30 years overpaying their council tax are due thousands of pounds back in refunds.
An investigation has found 79 households in the East Lothian Council region in Scotland are owed money back.
The exact amount each person will get back depends on how much they’ve overpaid their council tax by, and for how long.
The council tax bill for a Band D house in East Lothian is £1,314.69 for the current 2022/23 tax year.
This is up from £1,151.15 just five years ago in 2017.
For a Band E property, the total bill for the 2022/23 tax year is £1,762.84 - up from £1,512.48 in 2016.
Have you successfully challenged your council tax band? Let us know: levi.winchester@reachplc.com
Houses moved down from those bands would be entitled to around £400 a year in refunds for each year they overpaid, reports STV news.
The review into council tax payments was conducted by the local valuation board.
But not every household is due money back.
The investigation saw 127 homes moved up a band - meaning these households would have to pay more council tax.
They won’t be expected to repay any council tax payments for the years when they were in a lower band.
Council leader Norman Hampshire told STV news: “Our council tax team will be updating our records to reflect the changes and will issue revised notices over the next few weeks.”
How to challenge your council tax band
If you think you're in the wrong council tax, you could be owed thousands of pounds back - plus you'll pay lower bills going forward.
But you need to do your research first, as if it turns out you're in too low of a council tax band, you'll end up paying more - and your neighbours could be bumped up too.
The first step check is to see what council tax band your neighbours are on.
You can check council bands online for free, so you don't need to ask your neighbours if you're not on friendly terms - just make sure you try and compare homes of similar sizes and value.
Use the Gov.uk website to do this for houses in England, or the Scottish Assessors Association for properties in Scotland.
However, keep in mind that it could just be that your entire street is in the wrong banding.
You'll also need to work out how much your property was worth in 1991, as this is when council tax was launched by the government, before going ahead with your challenge.
MoneySavingExpert has a free calculator tool to help you do this, as well as a table on what band you should have been put in.
Once you've done these checks, if you think you’ve got a good case on your hands you can contact the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) in England and Wales.
For home in Scotland you'll need to contact the Scottish Assessors Association (SAA) to submit your challenge.
You can appeal to an independent valuation tribunal if you're not happy with the decision.
