Business Rates Rent Review

amyjohnners_2

Hi, Has anyone had any experience of these companies who claim they can get a reduction in business rates for your company? We have been contacted by one who is charging £350 + VAT to assist us in getting our rates reviewed, and should there be no reduction, they claim we will owe them nothing..... Sounds too good to be true from our point of view! The only charge will be the £360 + VAT. How are they making money unless every business has been overcharged for the last 3 years?! Thanks

simpywimpy

Ive had one of those call today lol. Ours quoted 495 + vat plus a commision % of the total saved.

I was just looking on the forum to see if its something I can do myself or whether it is worth using one of these companies.

Our business rates are due to rise from 565 per month to over 700 from april

ciano125

Whoa!!!! Scam alert!!!

simpywimpy

My post wasnt a scam. Im genuinely interested but if Ive joined a scam thread I will start my own

ciano125

Just wanted to get that previous post on straight away!

As I keep saying, a performance related fee, also known as no win no fee should be perfectly acceptable to a reputable firm of chartered surveyors who specialise in business rates.

There is no need to pay anything up front, anyone asking you for that is going to scam you, they'll take your money and then serve an appeal (which is free to do) and then withdraw it and say its acceptable. A reputable firm will do a desktop valuation first and if it appears as if it is over assessed they will tell you.

People on here will tell you that you can do it yourself, and yes, that is true. However, would you cut your own hair or would you pay someone a relatively small amount to do it for you?

It may be the case that your assessment is actually under-assessed, so then when you ring the VO up, they are duty bound to keep the list correct, they will increase it, I've seen that happen when people thought they could do it themselves and then they come to me to try and fix it! If they'd asked in the first place I could have told them (for free) that it was too low and to keep quiet.

Look in the yellow pages for a firm that is either RICS, IRRV or RSA members and ask them first.

Hope that helps, also, please see other posts on here such as "is this a scam" and also search for "Business Rates", you'll find lots of information.

ciano125

simpywimpy wrote: »

My post wasnt a scam. Im genuinely interested but if Ive joined a scam thread I will start my own

Haha, sorry, I can see now how my post could have been misinterpreted! Hopefully my second thread will explain all!! Is the company H****** and T***** by the way??

simpywimpy

I wondered after I posted if I had mis interpreted your post lol.

A company called BRA Ltd (manch) called today. I filled in the form for their valuation team to call in 2wks time to look and see if its worth us making an appeal to the VO. Im worried now Ive signed for something I shouldnt have

our rateable value is apparently rising from 11k to 14k a year this time

CIS

The RV increase will be part of the 2010 revaluation for business rates but the multiplier is droppping to offset the increase and there will also be transitional relief available to offset increases.

These companies often send things to businesses in our area (I dont work in business rates but I have done some training in it) offering to do things which you can do yourself by either contacting the business rates dept (small business rates relief etc) or the Valuation Office (disputes over rateable value etc)

amyjohnners_2

wow thanks for such a prompt response everyone! will look into it further. and yes ciano125, it is h & t!!!! is that a warning to beware?! :T

ciano125

Personally, I wouldn't use them. :beer:

cottager

Amy and Simpy, this thread may be of interest:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2151387