Business Rates Reduction

hummy

Hi

Does anyone know much about companies offering to reduce business rates and charging a fee on success of this.

Me and my dad run a small takeaway and our business rates are about £300 per month where our rent is £1000 per month. This is after our small business rates relief.

I am told that this is quite high and we';ve had increases over the last few years too. We've been contacted by a company called Hammer Property who can appeal the decision and get a reduction for us with our overpayments from last year also possibly paid back. They then charge a fee based on what they claim back.

They claim its something that only a specialised company can do, and not something that ourselves as the business owner can do.

Anyone any ideas about this stuff. I'm not sure whether this is genuine or not and why is it something only specialist company can do and not me as a business owner.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Kind Regards

lincroft1710

If you don't want to challenge the rating assessment yourself, employ a RICS qualified firm of rating surveyors who don't cold call, don't charge an upfront fee and charge a flat fee rather than a percentage of what you can reclaim in overpayments.

greyteam1959

Don't touch them with a very long long barge pole would be my advice.
This 'scam' has been going on for years !!
Why not ring your local council business rates department & have a would with them ???
You might be suprised how helpful they will be.

paulwf

mervyn11 wrote: »

Don't touch them with a very long long barge pole would be my advice.
This 'scam' has been going on for years !!
Why not ring your local council business rates department & have a would with them ???
You might be suprised how helpful they will be.

I have to disagree with your post, sorry. I hope you don't mind, hopefully an open forum means the OP can make up their own mind from several views and I hope you don't mind me presenting a different view.

The "scam" element is partly correct but only applies to companies that charge an up front fee. There is no incentive for them to save you money and indeed you may end up paying higher business rates if they get their calculations wrong! Only use a company that comes personally recommended.

Ethical companies will charge based on a percentage of the money they save you. There is a real incentive for them to work in your best interest, and if they don't save you anything you haven't lost any money. Only use companies that bill this way.

Business rate valuations are very complicated, I try and understand the basics of most areas of business that I have to deal with but this is like rocket science to me! I used Allsops http://www.allsop.co.uk/ that came recommended to me and they saved me a fortune where the council had made basic errors before they even measured up and crunched the figures! Phoning the council will not help, they are clueless and have no incentive to save you money (the opposite applies).

Daz2009

The last time my premises were re-rated the guy from the council came out measured up and asked how much rent I paid and based his findings on that.I'm not sure if there is a formula they use or not.

Luckily for me my council have given small businesses 100% rate relief for the last 2 years

dark1

Maybe I can offer some insight here.

Firstly, the question of how the rating system works and whether you are indeed over-assessed. In short, the rateable value (RV) of your property is what the VOA considers would be a fair net rental value if it were vacant and to let on the open market on the 1st April 2008. Any appeal registered would be from a perspective of disputing this.

If you do have evidence to dispute this, then the submission of an appeal could be appropriate. However, a word of warning; think very carefully before submitting a speculative appeal. If evidence your RV is excessive is 'sketchy', there is the very real risk that it could increase. Many of the the VOA's surveys are rather poor or out of date - usually insufficiently so - so if your speculative appeal triggers a resurvey, an RV increase is a very real possibility.

The problem with employing cold calling 'cowboy' agents, is they do engage in speculative appealing. They do their business by bulk submitting of appeals. They often have no real evidence to dispute your RV as they claim, and they often do not conduct a thorough resurvey to compare with the VOA's. They make their money on the occasional incidental success. However, in their wake, the majority are left with disappointment or worse, the exact opposite of what they promised.

So, your options; either check out the survey and rental evidence yourself and submit an appeal if you conclude an over-assessment. Or employ a reputable rating agent who doesn't cold call and will only submit an appeal if they believe there's a realistic chance of success.

If you have further concerns, feel free to ask. Otherwise, good luck.

jong1978

Hi, I really just have to agree with the previous submitters.

Ultimately,I would say the following;
- be aware that if you appeal your rating assessment, it can mean you rateble value could increase as well as decrease.
- As mentioned before use a no win no fee surveyor for your rating appeal.
-research any surveyor you are going to use.
-compare surveyor quotes. an example would be www. isurveyor .com one simple form, and upto 5 quotes back from experts on rating surveyors.
-Check insurance and qualifications of any one you are thinking about instructing. I would expect them to be either a member of the RICS, IRRv or RSA.

I hope this helps. make sure you have a chat with the surveyor and make sure they do not think there is a risk that in appealing your rating assessment could increase!
Good luck.