The 2017 Rating List is approaching its first anniversary and significant increases have occurred in many locations.
While the 2010 Revaluation List is now closed some 200,000 plus appeals still remain unsettled, though in April 2018 the Valuation Office will not be able to amend the 2015 List beyond those live outstanding Appeals.
The 2017 Revaluation came seven years after the last valuation date in 2008, during which period, commercial property has shown substantial increases in rental values around the new AVD (Antecedent Valuation Date) of 1st April 2015.
The new UBR (rate poundage) has been set at £0.479p for large businesses and £0.466p for small businesses, with the City of London being set at £0.471p and £0.484p. Crossrail supplement is also applied in Greater London at a rate of £0.02p for businesses with a Rateable Value over RV £70,000 for the duration of the intended five year term of the revaluation.
Transitional provisions have now been confirmed and the table below shows the percentage caps for those with increasing bills. These will apply until March 2022, where appropriate and are applied in fewer cases than before.
There are similar limits on downward bills but sadly those are remote as a result of the revaluation.
Maximum increases:
| Rateable Value | 2017–2018 | 2018–2019 | 2019–2020 | 2020–2021 | 2021–2022 |
| Up to £20,000
(£28,000 in London) |
5% | 7.5% | 10% | 15% | 15% |
| Up to £20,001
(£28,001 in London) to £99,999 |
12.5% | 17.5% | 20% | 25% | 25% |
| Over £100,000 | 42% | 32% | 49% | 16% | 6% |
The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) has also introduced a new appeal system called Check, Challenge and Appeal (CCA) which is deliberately complicated.
The system is intended on agreeing the factual errors through the ‘Check’ stage which can take up to 12 months to complete and, if accepted, ‘Challenge’ can then be made. The Check stage is mandatory and a Challenge cannot be made until this stage is completed. This has been implemented to prohibit the blanket appeals of the last Revaluation and make sure true cases are heard. So far the system has experienced many difficulties and imposed time limits making the pitfalls easy to fall foul of.
Please see our Check, Challenge and Appeal Guide to see how the process unfolds.
In addition, all applications are now required through the Government Gateway so data verification is now mandatory for all ratepayers hoping to make a Check on their property.
Kinney Green would be delighted to carry out a rating “health check” to assess whether an appeal is appropriate and assist in navigating the new system.
We can also assist with the following Appeals:
- Appeals relating to temporary reductions to reflect eg adjacent building works known as Material
Change in Circumstances. - Completion of rating returns issued by the Valuation Office Agency(VOA).
- Rate Auditing and Management.
- Empty Property Relief.
- Rate Mitigation whether mandatory or discretionary such as Charities.
