Check council tax band: find your band in Scotland

Your council tax band is set by the Assessor, not the council. You can check it free on the Scottish Assessors Association website in about a minute, using your postcode. The band is also printed on your council tax bill.

Find my council tax band on the Scottish Assessors site

Every home in Scotland is on one public list, kept by the local Assessor. The Scottish Assessors Association puts the whole list online in one place.

• •Go to saa.gov.uk.
• •Use the council tax bands search on the home page. Type your postcode or address.
• •Pick your home from the list. The band shows next to the address.

The list shows the band only. It doesn't show the value the Assessor put on the home, so you won't find a price on there.

If your home isn't listed

A new build can take a while to appear. Contact the Assessor for your area so the home gets added and banded. Once it is, the owner and whoever pays the bill get a banding notice in the post.

Check my council tax band against my bill

Your band is printed on your council tax bill. If the bill and the Assessor's list don't match, phone the council and ask why. You don't want to pay for a higher band by accident.

Once you know your band, you can see exactly what it costs where you live. I've put every council on its own page, for example Glasgow council tax bands and Edinburgh council tax bands, with the water charges included.

What the bands mean

There are eight bands, A to H. Your band depends on what the home would have sold for on the open market on 1 April 1991. Not what it's worth now, and not what you paid for it. That's why two homes worth the same today can sit in different bands.

Band D is the one councils use as their headline figure, and the council tax band D Scotland page compares it across all 32 councils.

How to appeal your council tax band

In Scotland an appeal is called a proposal, and it goes to the Assessor, not the council. You can only make one at certain times. The main ones are:

• •within 6 months of becoming the owner, or the person who pays the bill
• •within 6 months of the Assessor changing the band
• •within 6 months of an appeal decision on a similar home that suggests yours is wrong too
• •at any time if the home has dropped in value because part of it was knocked down, the area around it physically changed, or it was adapted for a disabled person

If you've just moved in, that first window is the one that matters. Miss it and you usually can't appeal later just because you think the band is too high. A fall in house prices doesn't count either.

How to make a proposal

The easiest way is on the Scottish Assessors site. Find your home, click it, and use the "Make a proposal" button. You can also ask your local Assessor for a paper form. Before you send it, it helps to look up the bands of similar homes nearby: same type, same size, same street.

What happens next

• •Keep paying your council tax as normal while the Assessor looks at it.
• •The Assessor has 6 months to decide.
• •Most are settled with the Assessor. If not, you can take it to an independent tribunal, the Local Taxation Chamber. You have 6 months and 6 weeks from the day the Assessor got your proposal.

Council tax check Scotland: is your bill right?

Once you've got your band, these are the four things I'd check on the bill.

• •The band. Same as the Assessor's list?
• •The rate. Does it match your council's charge for that band? Every council is on the council tax bands Scotland checker.
• •The water. Water and waste water are added to the same bill. The water rates Scotland page shows what each band pays.
• •The discounts. Live alone? You should get the single person discount. On a low income? Ask about Council Tax Reduction.

If you want the full picture of how the bill fits together, my guide on how council tax works in Scotland covers it, and the council tax increase page shows how much each council put it up this year.