Business Rates
Relief

Our Survey Department provides considerable expertise and the highest level of experience in ensuring businesses across England and Wales have a Rateable Value that is correct and fair, securing any savings that they entitled to. We have generated millions of pounds in savings for businesses by correcting unfair and inaccurate rating assessments.

It costs nothing to find out if we can help your business claim back thousands of pounds as a result of an incorrect Rateable Value being applied to your property.

Business Rates Checker

Our business rates checker uses a proprietary algorithm that analyses the base valuation of your property and compares it to other properties in your area that the VOA considered to be similar when setting your rateable value. This helps to identify whether there is potential viability in submitting an appeal to the VOA with a view to correcting your valuation.

Enter your postcode below to discover your potential savings until 2026!

We Can Help Reduce Your Business Rates.

We are committed to providing the highest standards of service, as such we follow The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Rating Consultancy Code of Practice.

Our dedicated team of surveyors provide advice and guidance to occupiers and landlords of every kind of commercial property. Providing a variety of services to reduce your business rates, including:

Disturbance appeals

Securing business rates reductions due to Change of Circumstances

Rates planning and budgeting

Local authority rate relief

Identifying and securing reliefs and exemptions

Challenging excessive values and determining grounds for appeal

Providing representation at Valuation Tribunal hearings

Much more

We utilise the skills of some of the country’s leading commercial property experts, combined with our relentless drive, in order to help clients improve their business cash flow. As well as our impressive Rates Reducer tool that has helped businesses save £1000’s.

If you’d like to know more about our process and how we can help your business to reduce their business rates and save money, please get in touch today. Hampton Lovett can help you.

APPEAL NOW to find out your correct relateable value.

Arrange a Business Rates Review

Enter your DETAILS below to discover your potential savings and rebate.


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The Check Challenge Appeal Process

The Check, Challenge, Appeal process was introduced in April 2017 and was designed with the intention of managing the flow of cases through the system, in a transparent way to allow ratepayers the opportunity to make an informed decision about how to proceed.

The new 2017 revaluation includes the need for a Government Gateway Account and as such, increases the administrative burden on businesses and has been heavily criticised. To combat this, Hampton Lovett can take the administrative strain away from you and deal with the complexities on your behalf.

Check-

Facts about the property must be agreed between the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) and the Agent or ratepayer. This check will require us to carefully verify all factual information pertaining to the property prior to any challenge against the assessment. Following this, the VOA will acknowledge the submission and respond once they have considered the proposal.

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Verified ratepayers (who have confirmed within 4 months of the Check concluding that property details held by the VOA are correct) will be able to enter the Challenge stage immediately. Confirmation of this will be easily accessible via an online account for the ratepayer to confirm all details.

Once the facts have been confirmed, a detailed assessment, valuation, and Statement of Case will have to be provided to the VOA to challenge the Rateable Value. The VOA will deliver a decision notice based on this. At this stage, the decision notice may agree with the proposed valuation and reduce the assessment accordingly. The matter will then be concluded.

Should the VOA not agree, you do have the option to appeal to the Valuation Tribunal (VT)

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This stage addresses the appeals that remain outstanding, and which are material, based on arguments and evidence which have already been established.

If you wish to appeal to the Valuation Tribunal, this can only be lodged after a decision notice has been issued by the VOA. If the case proceeds to appeal, you will have the opportunity to present the case to an independent panel and cross examine the VOA case. A decision is then issues by the VT 28 days after proceedings.
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VOA Business rates evaluation

The VOA gives a rateable value to each non-domestic property which is used by local councils to calculate a property’s business rates.

 

The VOA collects rent evidence to be analysed alongside other information, such as values per square meter. The VOA groups similar properties in the same area together to make sure that they value them fairly and consistently. This is called a ‘valuation scheme’.

 

All properties in the same scheme will be given a value from the same value range. The VOA makes assumptions about these similar properties and if a property is different from these assumptions the VOA adjusts the property’s value.

 

Although most properties are valued by the method known as ‘rental basis’, following accepted valuation practice. Such as shops, which are generally valued on a ‘zoning’ basis, as mentioned above, whereas offices or industrial property will be valued on a ‘main space’ basis.

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Applying for A Business Rates Reduction

The business rates appeal process in England is known as Check, Challenge, Appeal. The VOA deal with checks and challenges through their online service.

Before starting the process there are several administrative steps that must be completed, and then a check can be completed.

Even if you want to challenge the valuation of your property, you need to first agree the correct factual details with the VOA. This is called a ‘Check’.

There are 2 parts to a property’s valuation:

1. The factual details, such as the floor areas and number of rooms

2. The value of them

Once a Check has been submitted the VOA will review the details submitted to them. In most cases they will have enough information to process the Check. However, they may contact you if they need more information.

Once a check is completed, any valuation related to the same property can be Challenged. The VOA will review the evidence and may make contact to discuss the Challenge. If they agree with the case, they’ll amend the valuation and send written confirmation. If they partly agree with the case, they’ll send an agreement form for completion, then amend the valuation after the form is returned.

Trusted Advice and Action to Save You Money

Hampton Lovett Consultant Surveyors are a trusted professional business rates agent, proud to be a member of the Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation (IRRV).

Every month we help ratepayers reduce their business rates by over £1 million.

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Arrange a Business Rates Review

Before carrying out an assessment of your property it’s best that we have a conversation over the phone to make sure that we can help you — not all properties have scope for an alteration to their valuation, and a quick chat with one of our specialists is the best way to ensure that your case gets off to the best possible start.

 

Once this conversation has taken place, if there appear to be grounds to submit a case to the VOA, we will arrange for one of our specialists to meet with you and inspect the property. There is no cost for this assessment, and no obligation to give any further instructions.

 

If our Assessor feels that there are grounds to submit a case to the VOA, they will ask you to authorise our Survey Department to carry out additional research to ensure that there are grounds to make a submission to the VOA in accordance with the current legal regulations — if your case does not meet these statutory requirements there are no fees for the work we have undertaken.