Swindon & Wiltshire News
Business rates appeal shake-up will place greater burden on businesses – expert
The Government’s recent proposals for reforming the business rates appeal process will place an extra burden on businesses, an expert in the field has warned.
Rating appeal specialist, Andrew Kilpatrick of Kilpatrick & Co in Swindon, said the new regulations, if implemented, will involve three stages of “check, challenge and appeal,” and are expected to come into effect for the 2017 Rating Revaluation.
The first check stage will require ratepayers to agree the facts relating to the property and its assessment with the Valuation Office, including its rent.
The Valuation Office may then decide to amend the assessment. The second, challenge, stage requires ratepayers to set out details of their challenge to the assessment, including an alternative valuation and supporting evidence.
This may result in negotiations between the Valuation Officer and the ratepayer or their agent. The Valuation Office will then issue a decision whether the Rating List should be altered and if so at what revised valuation.
The final appeal stage allows a ratepayer to appeal to the Valuation Tribunal, who will decide whether the Valuation Officer has made the correct decision at the challenge stage, based on the evidence provided by both parties. The Valuation Tribunal may confirm the Valuation Officer’s decision or amend it with a new valuation.
Ratepayers will have to pay a new fee to make an appeal, which is anticipated to be between £100 and £300. Mr Kilpatrick said: “These new proposals will place a greater burden on ratepayers and their agents to assemble facts and evidence and provide information to the Valuation Officer at a much earlier stage of the appeal process than currently and without having any sight of the Valuation Office Agency’s evidence which will inevitably add to the costs for ratepayers.
Only one “check challenge appeal” may be made by a ratepayer during the five year lifespan of a Rating List and so if you get your challenge wrong there will be consequences.” The Government says the proposals will lead to savings for ratepayers and reduce the number of speculative appeal challenges. It will also mean cost savings for the Valuation Office Agency and Valuation Tribunal and they say, produce faster decisions as each of their three stages of check, challenge and appeal are to have a time limit.
New civil penalties are proposed to be introduced for ratepayers or agents who provide incomplete or inaccurate information to the Valuation Office, with fines of up to £500 proposed. Consultations on the amendments close on January 4, and will be brought forward in the current Enterprise Bill.
Further information on the rates appeal changes is available from Andrew Kilpatrick, Kilpatrick & Co, Curtis Court, 73A Commercial Road, Swindon, SN1 5NX Telephone: 01793 643101, or via email, a.kilpatrick@kilpatrick-cpc.co.uk
