Is this a scam ??

ciano125

Ok, this is just my opinion first of all, I still think you should seek legal advice as I'm not a lawyer!

I know that this firm have acted on behalf of one of your neighbours and withdrawn the appeal they made on that property. That property is assessed at a higher rate than yours which makes me think that your assessment is probably not over assessed. The fact that it is entered into the list as a shop and not a salon makes no difference what so ever either. It would be my opinion that they knew there would be very little chance of actually getting a reduction, hence why they want payment upon acknowledgement of the appeal being served. If they still think they can get a reduction, personally I would say ok, go ahead, but you can have, say, 10% of savings, not the £400 plus VAT. Having seen the size of your assessment I find it extremely unlikely that they would be able to get you £5k back.

Bear in mind that I have only done a desktop review and havent actually seen your shop, I can't say for certain and this is only my opinion not advice. Please speak to a solicitor.

Cheers
Ciano

ciano125

Now I really have to go bath the baby as well!!

cmac

Thank you. I am seeing a solicitor on Monday, and I appreciate all your time and effort on this.
I`ll post back after the appointment.

cmac

cottager

cmac wrote: »

I am seeing a solicitor on Monday with regard to all this ...

Good, and please let us know how you get on.

There was a really good idea earlier from isplumm/Mark as well (post #34) -- to run it by your local Trading Standards. The only problem might be the timescale: you have only 14 days to respond to the letter (presumably from when it was written?), and I've read folks on MSE saying Trading Standards (and the CAB also mentioned) are always very busy and there are waiting times... but maybe that's to get an actual appointment to go in. Why not give Trading Standards a call this week, see if you can have an informal chat with one of the officers and sound them out about this? There may have been other activity by this firm in your local area which they're already aware of from other reports and concerns, or could be looking into. It can do no harm to ask, and for their views on your situation, as any background info you can gather may be useful for your solicitor on Monday.

If you haven't already, I'd also Google the name of the company and see if you can find anything else potentially useful.

cmac

Thank you,
I will ring Trading Standards tomorrow and CAB. I feel the more information I have on this the better.

Will let you all know what the solicitor says, and how it all pans out.
Off to Google them now

cmac x