In a bid to deter speculative appeals, The Government has launched proposals to create a more efficient business rates appeals system. However, it comes at a cost says commercial property agent, Prop-Search.
A consultation paper from the Government has been published which proposes that a fee in the region of £100 and £300 would be charged if anyone wished to lodge an appeal. This would aid the of curbing appeals from agents that operate on a ‘no win-no fee’ basis. The fee would be refundable only if an appeal is successful.
Moreover, a civil penalty of up to £500 is proposed for false information that a ratepayer or professional has provided, whether knowingly, recklessly or carelessly.
Associate Director at Prop-Search, Samantha Jones, commented: “Many businesses have complained in the past of the time it takes for an appeal to be resolved and indeed the Government’s interim findings identified over 850,000 appeals have been submitted against the rating valuations for the 2010 Rating List.
“Around 70 percent of these resulted in no change to the rateable value and less than 2 per cent proceeding to a tribunal hearing.”
The proposed forms say that appeals would go through three stages- Check, Challenge and Appeal. Checking will ensure facts are up-to-date and accurate, then once the agreed errors have been rectified, it will go to the challenge stage. This is where businesses will be able to challenge the rateable value of their premises with an alternative valuation and evidence. Finally it will go to the appeal stage, which will give the ratepayer the opportunity to appeal to an independent tribunal.
Marcus Jones, Local Government Minister, added: “The business rates appeals process has been in a decades-long deadlock, hampered by some unscrupulous agents making speculative appeals.
“A key part of our long-term economic plan is to turn this around and streamline the system, which is why we’re proposing a straight-forward 3-stage process so people can check, and challenge their valuations and be confidential they’ll get a fair deal.”
The deadline for responses to the consultation is January 4 2016 and subject to parliamentary approval. The Government has plans to devolve powers to local government by the end of Parliament, resulting all revenue raised from business rates being retained in local areas.
Uniform Business Rate is also going to be abolished by the Government and give local authorities power to cut business rates to boost enterprise and economic acidity in their areas.
