Use the right to appeal business rates
January 2012
Appealing business rates can often result in savings, you need to ask whether as a business you are paying more than neighbouring properties or whether any alterations have been made to your property.
All ratepayers have a general right of appeal and can challenge their assessment between 1 April 2010 to 31 March 2015. The current assessments came into effect in April 2010 adopting market values in April 2008, just at the peak of the market and before the recession took hold.
The savings can be dramatic; we were recently instructed to appeal the ratings assessment of all the properties owned by a police authority, with a combined rateable value of around £7 million. By negotiating a rateable value reduction of £65,000 for a single assessment, the client received a total saving throughout the 2010 list of £125,000.
You need to ask whether as a business you are paying more than neighbouring properties or whether any alterations to your property have been reflected in the rating assessment. This extends to any ‘material change in circumstances’ which may not have resulted in any physical affect on the operation of the property, but have a material affect on its operation. This can include any changes in your immediate surroundings which may have changed and had a detrimental effect on trade, such as disruption from nearby construction, road works that close the street, or increasingly the large number of empty shops in the vicinity.
Small businesses
On another positive note, in its autumn statement, the government announced that it will extend the current small business rate relief holiday for a further six months from 1 October 2012. This gives full relief for eligible small businesses occupying property in England with a rateable value of up to £6,000, and tapering relief for businesses with a higher rateable value up to £12,000.
All businesses in England will be given the ability to defer 60% of the Retail Prices Index based increase in their 2012-13 business rate bills. The deferred amount is to be repaid equally over the following two years.
For more information on how to appeal your business rates, contact Adam Rock on 0845 2000 6489, or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
