Scotland runs bands A to H on open market values at 1 April 1991, and what the council tax bands are carries the value ranges and the statutory proportions.

The Valuation Appeal Committee that used to hear these appeals was abolished on 1 April 2023. Appeals now go to the Local Taxation Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland.

Below is who to write to, every window and every deadline in the process, and what happens to the bill while a proposal is sitting with the Assessor.

The Assessor for your area. A band challenge is a proposal to alter the valuation list, and it goes to the Assessor rather than to your council, to the tribunal or to the Valuation Office Agency.

The Assessor bands and the council bills

Banding is carried out by regional Assessors, coordinating through the Scottish Assessors Association. Your council issues the bill on the band the Assessor has placed on the list.

So the council is the place for discounts, exemptions and arrears, and the Assessor is the place for the band itself. Who is liable for the bill is a third question again, covered in what makes you liable to pay council tax.

The Valuation Office Agency is the English body

It does not band Scottish property. A Scottish band is a matter for the Assessor and the Scottish valuation list.

The framework is section 74 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, in the Scottish part of that Act, and official guidance on council tax covers the council’s side of the same bill.

The tribunal is the second stage, not the first

The Local Taxation Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland hears an appeal against what the Assessor decides, or against the Assessor not deciding in time.

Going there first has nothing to appeal against. The proposal to the Assessor is what opens the route.

Three grounds run for six months from a dated event, and four more are open at any time. The six-month grounds are becoming the owner or liable person, the Assessor altering your band, and a First-tier Tribunal decision on a comparable property in the area.

Every ground and its window

Regulation 5 of the Council Tax (Alteration of Lists and Appeals) (Scotland) Regulations 1993 sets out both sets. The third column is the date the six months is measured from.

Write the relevant date down before anything else. It decides whether there is a window at all, and what you have left of it.

A tribunal decision on a comparable property opens a fresh window

A First-tier Tribunal decision on a comparable property in the area starts a six-month window for your own proposal. That is a ground in its own right, separate from anything happening at your own property.

It is also the one ground that can arrive without any warning. Nothing about your dwelling has to change for it to open.

A change of owner restarts the position

Becoming the owner or the liable person opens a six-month window whatever the previous position was. Buying, inheriting or becoming liable on a tenancy each start that clock.

Demolition, adaptation of the dwelling for a disabled person, and a change in the physical state of the locality. A fall in the market is expressly not a material reduction.

Why a fall in house prices is not a ground

The band follows the open market value at 1 April 1991, the date set by regulation 2 of the Council Tax (Valuation of Dwellings) (Scotland) Regulations 1992. A movement in what the property would fetch today sits outside the material reduction ground.

That is worth knowing before you start rather than after. The market ground is ruled out in terms rather than merely being hard to run.

Building work runs the other way

A material increase in value from building work is a ground at any time, and the increase takes effect only on the next sale. On that wording the band would not be expected to move while the owner who carried out the work is still there.

The other two grounds open at any time

A change in the balance between the domestic and non-domestic use of a property is a ground at any time. So is a dwelling being on the list when it should not be, or missing from it when it should be there.

Adapting a home for a disabled person is both a material reduction ground and the basis of a separate entitlement. The disabled band reduction charges the bill one band lower without altering the band on the list.

The Assessor must acknowledge your proposal within 14 days and has 6 months to determine it. Both periods are worth putting in a diary the day you send it.

The 14 days and the 6 months

The acknowledgement is your record that the proposal arrived, and when. Keep it, because the appeal period is measured from the date the Assessor received the proposal.

If nothing has arrived after 14 days, ask the Assessor’s office to confirm receipt and the date in writing. That single date governs everything that follows.

What goes into a proposal

You are stating a position rather than arguing a case at this stage. Keep it to the facts the Assessor needs in order to identify the dwelling and the ground.

• The address, and the band currently shown for the dwelling.
• The band you say is correct.
• Which ground you are relying on, from the list above.
• The date that ground runs from, where it is one of the six-month grounds.
• Anything you are relying on in support, dated.

Send it in writing and keep a dated copy of everything. The dates are what every deadline in the process is measured against.

A refusal, or no decision inside 6 months, gives you 6 months plus 6 weeks from the date the Assessor received your proposal. The chamber’s other council tax deadlines run from 21 days to 4 months.

The Valuation Appeal Committee was abolished on 1 April 2023

The Valuation Appeal Committee and the Council Tax Reduction Review Panel both transferred to the Local Taxation Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland on 1 April 2023, under SSI 2023/45 and SSI 2023/46. Procedure is set by SSI 2022/364.

Anything directing a Scottish reader to a valuation appeal committee is describing a body that no longer exists. The chamber is where a band appeal goes now.

Every appeal deadline in one table

Liability and water charge appeals are a different thing from a band appeal. They are about who pays and what is charged rather than about the valuation.

Counting the period on a proposal

The six months plus six weeks runs from the date the Assessor received the proposal, not from the date of the refusal. A late refusal therefore leaves less of the period than an early one, because nothing restarts on the decision.

That is the reason to keep the acknowledgement. Without it the start date is the Assessor’s record rather than yours.

The council tax account carries on to its own timetable. The recovery sequence is driven by missed instalments, so keep the instalments up to date while the Assessor considers the proposal.

The recovery sequence, in order

Miss an instalment and the council usually issues a reminder about two weeks later, and paying within 7 days puts the account back on track. A council may issue up to two reminders in a financial year.

After a further default a final notice follows, and if that is not paid within 7 days the right to pay by instalments is lost and the whole remaining year’s balance falls due.

The council can then apply for a summary warrant, which adds a 10% statutory surcharge to the outstanding council tax, and instruct sheriff officers to carry out diligence.

Non-payment cannot lead to imprisonment in Scotland. It is a civil debt rather than a criminal offence, and there is no criminal record.

If the band is altered later

Ask the council what an alteration means for the periods already billed, because the account is the council’s side rather than the Assessor’s. Our billing and collection guide explains how a bill and its instalments are put together.

Put that request in writing and keep the reply. It is a separate conversation from the proposal itself.

If the bill is unaffordable in the meantime

Ask the council for a special payment arrangement rather than letting instalments lapse, and check Council Tax Reduction, which is worth up to 100% of the council tax liability under the Scottish scheme.

If instalments have already been lost, reinstating them is at the council’s discretion rather than a right. Our council tax debt advice page covers what to put in an offer, and an approved Debt Payment Programme under the Debt Arrangement Scheme freezes interest, fees and charges.

A proposal asks the Assessor to change the band the dwelling is entered in. A disabled band reduction leaves that band alone and charges the bill one band lower instead.

Three routes, and what each one changes

They go to different places and produce different results. The table sets out which is which.

The band A point is the one worth repeating, because a band A property still gets a reduction equivalent to one band. What council tax discounts are available maps the rest of them.

Which one to start with

A discount or a reduction can change the bill for the current year without touching the valuation list. A proposal changes the band, and only inside a window that is open.

There is nothing stopping you doing both. They are decided by different people on different grounds.