Council tax band
council_tax_bandThe VOA council tax band for a property, read from the official list and never predicted; three fields are null on purpose because inventing them would be wrong. Free.
Same call over REST
Property council tax/v1/property/council-tax/{uprn}Not connected yet? Connect your assistant. Sign in with your MarketCode account; no API key needed.
Reference
What council_tax_band answers
Every band this tool returns is declared: read from the Valuation Office Agency's list for that address, with band_source saying so. A predicted band would arrive as a distinct value rather than be folded in, because a caller cannot tell the two apart after the fact, and no prediction is made today. It is free.
Bands were set on 1 April 1991 values in England (2003 in Wales, which also has a band I) and have never been revalued, so a band is a statement about relative value thirty years ago, not about today's price. It is nonetheless the one attribute a buyer, a lender and a letting agent all ask for.
The full description, as the assistant reads it
Every band is DECLARED — read from the VOA list, never inferred by a model. band_source states which, and a predicted band would arrive as a distinct value rather than folded in, because a caller cannot tell the two apart after the fact.
DO NOT PRESENT A BAND AS A BILL. Three fields come back null on purpose and must not be filled in by estimating: * annual_cost_gbp — the per-band charge for each billing authority is a separate source we do not hold. * effective_date — the crawl records when the VOA refreshed the LIST, which is not when this property's band took effect. * composite — same reason; it lives on the per-property detail page.
status is not_found when the band exists in the VOA list but address matching has not linked this UPRN to it. That is a matching gap on OUR side, not evidence the property has no band — report it that way round.
England and Wales only: Scotland is the Scottish Assessors Association and Northern Ireland is Land & Property Services, neither of which is in this list.
Reference
When to use it, and when not to
Use it for the band of one property. The bill is not here: each billing authority sets its own charge per band, and annual_cost_gbp is null on purpose because that per-authority table is a separate source the platform does not hold. For the band alongside the other headline attributes, property_summary carries it; where the band disagrees with what the portals or the certificate imply about the property, property_reconcile surfaces the divergence.
Inputs
Before you call it
A UPRN. address_autocomplete (free) then address_resolve (8 credits).
- uprn
- A UPRN is the Unique Property Reference Number every UK address carries. Narrow the address with address_autocomplete, which is free, then address_resolve returns the UPRN for 8 credits. property_summary and address_by_postcode return UPRNs too.
Example
An example call to council_tax_band
Use the MarketCode tool council_tax_band with {"uprn":"200003443835"} and show me the result.{
"uprn": "200003443835",
"country": "UK",
"data": {
"data": {
"status": "not_found",
"uprn": "200003443835",
"band": null,
"band_source": null,
"annual_cost_gbp": null,
"billing_authority": null,
"composite": null,
"effective_date": null,
"source": "VOA",
"retrieved_at": "2026-09-06T20:53:45.411228",
"reason": "No VOA council tax record is matched to this UPRN. The band exists in the VOA list but address matching has not linked it, or the property is outside England a…"
}
},
"credits_charged": 0
}A real response, captured from production and trimmed: arrays to three items, long strings shortened, volatile keys dropped.
Inputs
Arguments council_tax_band takes
| Name | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| uprn | string | Yes |
Response
What comes back
| Field | Type | Example |
|---|---|---|
| uprn | string | 200003443835 |
| country | string | UK |
| data | object | |
| data.data | object | |
| data.data.status | string | not_found |
| data.data.uprn | string | 200003443835 |
| data.data.band | null | |
| data.data.band_source | null | |
| data.data.annual_cost_gbp | null | |
| data.data.billing_authority | null | |
| data.data.composite | null | |
| data.data.effective_date | null | |
| data.data.source | string | VOA |
| data.data.retrieved_at | string | 2026-09-06T20:53:45.411228 |
| data.data.reason | string | No VOA council tax record is matched to this UPR |
| credits_charged | integer | 0 |
Fields observed in the example response above; a field the example did not exercise is not listed.
Reference
Things that catch people out
- Do not present a band as a bill.
annual_cost_gbp,effective_dateandcompositeare null by design. The cost needs the billing authority's table; the effective date the crawl records is when the VOA refreshed the list, not when this property's band took effect; the composite flag lives on the per-property detail page. not_foundis a matching gap, not a missing band. It means the band exists in the VOA list but address matching has not linked this UPRN to it. Report it that way round.- England and Wales only. Scotland is the Scottish Assessors Association and Northern Ireland is Land & Property Services; neither is in this list.
Usage
How to run council_tax_band in your assistant
Ask your assistant in plain English, for example:
"Use the MarketCode tool council_tax_band for <address or area>.
Show the result and the credits charged."
The arguments the assistant will send, for the example on this page:
{"uprn":"200003443835"}The connect steps for Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, Cursor and Claude Code are on the MCP page.
Skills
Skills that use council_tax_band
- Property research: A sourced answer to any UK property question: the right tool for the job, the credit cost stated first, the wording rules that keep an estimate an estimate.
- Valuation report: An indicative valuation for one address: the range, the comparables and adjustments, the index position, the EPC, flood and planning context, and the reasoning, with every figure cited to the tool it came from.
- Due diligence report: A property due diligence report: title and ownership, history, EPC and council tax, flood and designations, nearby activity, cross-source disagreements and the cross-reference findings that join them, with a traffic light.
Price and licence
What it costs, and where the data comes from
council_tax_band is free over MCP and over REST, and the two surfaces share one credit balance. Free calls need a signed-in account or an API key and appear in your usage, but they never touch your balance.
Credits are granted on sign-up and bought in packs; the pricing page lists every call.
Sources
- Valuation Office Agency
Council tax valuation list
Crown copyright · England and Wales
Related
Tools used with council_tax_band
- Property summary4 credits
property_summaryOne-call summary of a property: what it is, what building it belongs to,Pairs with this - Reconcile a property across sources3 credits
property_reconcileCross-source feature reconciliation for a UPRN — surfaces divergencePairs with this - Full property record5 credits
property_lookupFull property record for a UPRN, grouped into tiers: identity, property,Pairs with this - EPC certificates for a propertyFree
epc_certificatesEvery Energy Performance Certificate lodged against a property, newest first, with current and potential efficiency, CO2, heating fuel and system, floor area and construction age.Pairs with this - Commercial property report: RV, indexes, yield, owner2 credits
commercial_propertyThe commercial property report, by UPRN or by VOA UARN: the hereditament as the 2026 rating list describes it (rateable value, sector, description), the sector's rent index across the 2010/2017/2023/2026 lists and its capital index (national, plus the local authority where one exists), an income-basis value that capitalises the RV at the district's commercial auction net yield — with the yield's receipt, and `not_available` where the district published none — the auction history at the address, the district's commercial auction market by quarter, the registered owner and the lease. Blocks that cannot be derived today say `not_available` with the reason (the RV history per hereditament; the VOA measured area). RV is a rating measure at the antecedent valuation date, not passing rent — say so when you quote the income-basis figure. UK only.Same category - Energy rating, MEES and the retrofit gap1 credit
property_energy_retrofitThe energy picture for one property: current rating against the certificate's own potential, the points and letter bands available, the fabric and heating the assessor recorded, and MEES.Same category
FAQ
Questions about council_tax_band
How much does `council_tax_band` cost?
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council_tax_band is free over MCP and over REST, and the two surfaces share one credit balance. Free calls need a signed-in account or an API key and appear in your usage, but they never touch your balance.
Do I need to resolve the address first?
+
Yes. council_tax_band takes a UPRN, not an address. Start with address_autocomplete (free) to narrow the address, then address_resolve (8 credits) to get the UPRN. An assistant with the MarketCode skills installed does both steps on its own.
Which assistants can run `council_tax_band`?
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Any MCP client: Claude (claude.ai, Claude Desktop, Claude Code), ChatGPT in developer mode, Codex and Cursor, each documented on the MCP page. You sign in with your MarketCode account over OAuth; there is no key to paste, and the connection is read-only.
Where does the data come from?
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Read from Valuation Office Agency council tax list. Coverage is England and Wales (VOA list).
Does `council_tax_band` change anything?
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No. The tool is annotated read-only on the server, so it never writes to your data or ours and an assistant can call it without a confirmation step.
Why is the annual cost null?
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Because the charge per band is set by each of more than three hundred billing authorities and changes every April. That table is a separate source the platform does not hold, and a figure invented from a national average would look exactly like a real bill.
Can the band be wrong?
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The band is what the VOA list says; a challenge to it is made to the VOA. What can be wrong on our side is the match from UPRN to list entry, which is why not_found is reported as our gap rather than as the property having no band.
Is the band a proxy for value?
+
Only loosely, and only within one authority. Bands are 1991 relative values in wide brackets; a 1991 band D covers a range that has since diverged sharply by area. Use the valuation tools for value and the band for what it is.
Try council_tax_band in your assistant.
30-minute call. We'll connect your assistant live on a real address.