The money saving guru Martin Lewis has offered advice that could save people thousands in the new year.
On his ITV programme The Martin Lewis Money Show , the finance-savvy presenter gave viewers a simple tip to secure a huge refund on council tax bills.
He said council tax payers could be owed thousands of backdated payouts by revealing more than 400,000 homes are believed to be on the wrong bands.
This would mean homeowners and renters are overpaying every year.
Speaking to viewers, he said: "You could get backdated payouts of up to £5,000 for doing this.
"There are two tests, the first is the neighbours test.
"Are you in a higher band than neighbours in similar or identical properties? You don’t need to ask them, in England you go to voa.gov.uk, in Scotland go to saa.gov.uk, those are the websites where you can look at your and your neighbour’s bands."
Martin explained: "If you are on a higher band than neighbours in identical properties, the next thing you need to know is are they in too low of a band?
"You need to do a valuation test. What that does is it works out the value of your property in 1991.
"In simple terms, you find what the property was when you bought it, or you find a neighbour in an identical property, convert that into 1991 on house price calculators.
"Then you’ll see if they’re in the right band.
"You need to pass both tests, because when you apply you’re asking for them to look at the valuation, not for it just to be dropped.
"There are free tools online that can do this for you."
Martin then went on to reveal how one viewer had got a refund of £4,680 on his council tax after working out he'd been on the wrong tax band since the 1980s, so it's worth following his advice.
