What to do to get a fair rate
Have you been affected by the recent revaluation of business rates?
If so, and like many have also found, it may well have been a substantial hike in rates.
The last revaluation was done back in 2010 and the new rates came into force with effect from April 1. Have you tried appealing against the changes? The Valuation Office Agency has brought in a new process for making an appeal known as check, challenge and appeal.
Business rates relate to non-domestic property and that applies to any property or land that is not solely used residentially. Properties can be split and a rateable value separately applied if there are separately occupied units. The Valuation Office Agency set the rateable value, which is their assessment of what the property could be let on the open market. The rateable value figure is then multiplied by an appropriate multiplier to give the figure that needs to be paid. It is the local council that then issues the bill and collects payment.
Agricultural properties are not liable for business rates but stables might be, particularly if they are for leisure purposes, commercially or otherwise.
In terms of challenging your business rates the first stage is to inform the VOA if any of the factual details about the property or land is incorrect. If there aren’t any factual matters that need changing you can still challenge it.
Both of these can be done online via the VOA website. Reasons for challenging the rateable value can include the valuation being wrong when the rating list was created, a change in the property, dates or changes made by the VOA are incorrect, there needs to a split of the property into separate units, or the property details are incorrect.
Once the challenge and supporting evidence has been submitted the VOA will review this and either agree to amend the rating list or inform you of any amendments they intend to make if they only partly agree with the challenge.
The danger with a challenge is that the rateable value goes up. It is important to check your property against comparable properties in the area before beginning this process. This information is available online via the VOA website.
Finally, if you still do not agree with the amendments then you need to take the matter to the Valuation Tribunal for an independent review, within four months of the challenge decision.
Rachel Kirk works at Fisher German's Chester office
