Business rates and approval from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA)

lincroft1710

This is bureaucracy gone mad!!!

Have you tried to fill in the forms as far as you can? But I bet you get "Computer says NO!" response. I would suggest you e-mail back you are not as yet a ratepayer but you are the legal occupier and your landlord will not co-operate in agreeing to allow the property to be split.

If you come up against a brick wall then I think the next step will be contact your MP.

Back in "the good old days" this would have been sorted in about half the time it would take you to read and fill in the form

vista99

lincroft1710 Thank you for response. Yes, it is really frustrating. Actually, I rented whole first floor in the past. But on 1st February 2020, the main leaseholder who has business on ground floor asked me we can divide first floor. I agreed and he split the floor into two units. Then came coronavirus crisis and government announced in March business grant for small businesses. The main leaseholder contacted council, change the ratepayer bill to his name and applied for 10K Business Grant.

Now council given him three grants. He had already divided ground floor into two units and third on the first floor. I have been on this floor for many years but council refused my grant because the partition on that floor was not approved but at the same time, they given grant to main lease holder who also has the other partition on the floor. It is strange that one partition is not approved and with the other they don’t have any issue. His partition is still empty without stock etc. He has only one business but got three grants (two for ground floor and one for first floor).

Anyhow now I registered myself on VOA but partition does not exist in their record. The only option was to claim the whole 1st floor and then ask for partition. I claimed the whole 1st floor and submitted lease for 2019. This is in pending status and I think they will refuse as main leaseholder already claimed it. I feel I am banging my head against the walls.

 

Thank you very much again for your help. You are only person who given me some helpful advice.

lincroft1710

So you originally occupied the whole floor?

It seems the leaseholder has been very crafty. When he suggested your floor was split into two, the rating assessment should have been split and you would have been responsible for the rates on your half.

vista99

lincroft1710 Thank you very much again for your help. I am sure he has not yet informed VOA that he split the 1st floor. I asked him on Friday about this issue and he said that he sent email to VOA two months ago but did not get any response yet. I don’t believe it because I am getting response in 1-2 working days.

I don’t know what I can do in this situation. You had lot of experience in this field, please advise me how I can solve this issue as subleaseholder of partition. Can I apply for valuation? Kind Regards

lincroft1710

I am presuming you had a lease on the whole of the 1st Floor, if so, it was your call to ask for the split rather than your landlord. 

If you cannot contact them by phone (actually speaking to a human being is the easiest way to resolve this) then email them again explaining you originally occupied the whole of the 1st Floor and were the ratepayer until your landlord "hi-jacked" the rating liability following the split.

vista99

lincroft1710 Thank you very much again for your help. I had lease on the whole of the 1st Floor until 01-02-20. After that I have lease for only a partition. Now council is refusing me for grant as this partition is not approved. But they are giving grant on the other partition to landlord who even not yet started any business there. Now this partition is not on VOA list so I can not claim property. I cannot claim the whole floor and ask for split because now I have lease for only partition. I am completely hopeless now.

vista99

I am filling the form of Valuation Authority office for Challenge your valuation. There is following question
Smaller proposer? Yes or No
What does it mean. I have small business and no employee. Should I select Yes or No?

lincroft1710

I honestly have no idea, it doesn't make sense, although it may in context

Airwolf1

vista99 said:

Hi,

I have rented a small unit recently. When contacted council for business rates, they informed me that this unit is partition of bigger unit and that have been unofficially partitioned without sanction/appropriate approval from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA).  They advised to apply via the VOA website for the partition and necessary re-evaluation. Now I have three questions

1.       Can I apply via the VOA website for the partition and necessary re-evaluation as tenant? If yes, what is procedure and what documents I need to send VOA.

2.       Was landlord wrong renting partition without sanction/appropriate approval from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) or it was my fault not checking it on VOA website.

3.       If only landlord has right to apply for approval from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) and he don't apply for it then what can I do?

Thank you

Hi. The actual council could send a report over to the Valuation Office (VO) to get this done so they are being a tad lazy with the advice they gave you, however, you can also do this via the VO's Check Challenge Appeal system - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-check-your-rateable-value-is-correct#how-to-submit-a-check-online - on the online portal you should be able to submit documents so if you can also submit a photo, a plan (can be hand drawn) of the layout showing measurements of rooms/walls and a copy of your lease, the VO could probably action this from the desk fairly quickly. Also state if the property is insulated, heated, air conditioned etc. All this will help them to value it correctly. And don't forget afterwards, if your rateable value is below £15k, you can apply for small business rates relief via the local authority.

Airwolf1

Ha, sorry, just catching up. I missed the 2nd page initially (hence my reply above!). You can do the Challenge yourself, but provide the information I mentioned above. I was working at the VO until a couple of years ago so happy to try to help along with lincroft1710