What is Council Tax and who has to pay it?

What is Council Tax?

Council Tax is a property-based charge for all domestic properties. You could be liable to pay Council Tax for your home if you are one of the following:

  • resident/owner
  • resident/tenant
  • resident
  • owner (if the property is no one's sole or main residence).

People are jointly liable to pay if they are married, live together, or are joint owners or joint tenants.

Under certain circumstances an owner may also be liable for the Council Tax even if the property is occupied. The main examples of this are where a property is a house of multiple occupation and homes occupied by ministers of religion. Full details can be found in The Council Tax (Liability for Owners) Regulations 1992.

How much do I have to Pay?

The amount payable will depend on the value band that the property is placed into by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) which is an agency of HMRC. Each dwelling has being allocated to one of eight bands according to its open market value as at 1 April 1991.

Valuation Band Range of Values
A Up to and including £40,000
B £40,001 - £52,000
C £52,001 - £68,000
D £68,001 - £88,000
E £88,001 - £120,000
F £120,001 - £160,000
G £160,001 - £320,000
H More than £320,000

You can find out the valuation band of a property by visiting the VOA section of the Direct Gov website.

The band will need to be reviewed by the Listing Officer if the property is sold and has been improved by a previous owner. If you feel your property is uninhabitable or in the incorrect band you should contact the Listing Officer to have the banding of your property reviewed. You can do this by visiting the VOA and Council tax section of the GOV.UK website.

If you are appealing your property banding you must continue to pay your Council Tax as billed. If your appeal is successful the VOA will inform us directly and we will issue a revised bill. If you have overpaid Council Tax we will also issue a refund at that time. 

This table below shows the total amount of Council Tax payable per property band in Epsom & Ewell. It also details the breakdown of what is collected by Epsom & Ewell Borough Council, for Surrey Police and Surrey County Council and Surrey County Council social care for 2024-25

Property Band

Epsom & Ewell BC

(£)

Surrey Police

(£)

Surrey CC

(£)

Surrey CC social care

(£)

Total Per Household

(£)

A 150.78 215.71 1004.77 167.63 1538.89
B 175.91 251.67 1172.24 195.56 1795.38
C 201.04 287.62 1339.70 223.50 2051.86
D 226.17 323.57 1507.16 251.44 2308.34
E 276.43 395.47 1842.08 307.32 2821.30
F 326.69 467.38 2177.01 363.19 3334.27
G 376.95 539.28 2511.93 419.07 3847.23
H 452.34 647.14 3014.32 502.88 4616.68

Council Tax information booklets

2024/25

Epsom & Ewell Borough Council Council Tax Leaflet 2024-25

Surrey County Council Council Tax Leaflet 2024-25

Police and Crime Commissioner of Surrey Council Tax Leaflet 2024-25

2023/24

Epsom & Ewell Borough Council Council Tax Leaflet 2023-24

Surrey County Council Council Tax Leaflet 2023-24

Police and Crime Commissioner of Surrey Council Tax Leaflet 2023-24

For more information on the spending plans of Surrey County Council or Surrey Police please visit  the Surrey County Council website or the Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner website.

Please also see our Discount and Exemption and Help with your Council Tax pages for further information on how your bill is calculated.