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REVALUATION FOR BEGINNERS!

Late last year the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) released the draft 2010 Rating Revaluation and is to be applauded for bringing the job in on time and within budget.
 
Contrary to some of the scare stories seen in the media, typically from representatives of big business, the revaluation does not increase rates revenue for the government. Whilst total rateable value in the system will increase, the uniform business rate in the pound then applied to it falls, thereby producing exactly the same end figure. On an individual property level however, some rateable values will increase, some will increase less than the average, whilst some will fall.
 
This time the release of draft assessments has been accompanied by a largely unexpected HMRC advertising campaign throughout the media, akin to that only previously seen for self assessment of Income Tax and over which, rather surprisingly, the VOA itself has had little control.
 
In addition to launching an expensive new website, the VOA wrote to business ratepayers at vast expense with a breakdown of their valuations. Many letters were delayed by the Royal Mail industrial action. This breakdown has, however, been limited to the basic arithmetic of floor areas of buildings and values applied, but with no proper explanation as to how the basic values have been produced.
 
Ratepayers are inevitably keen to check that the figures add up. As the figures are produced by computer, they always will, so this is simply wasting the general public’s time. Ratepayers are even encouraged to play to at being DIY rating surveyors by measuring their own properties and reporting any discrepancies back to the VOA. What the letters don’t reveal is that the VOA hasn’t been given the resources to itself visit more than a few sample properties for the last 10 years!
 
This is therefore a complete dumbing down of the complex Rating valuation process which, after completion of a specialist survey, relies on the careful adjustment and expert analysis of rental information to develop a tone of values that is then applied to all commercial properties, whether rented or not. The VOA letters also included a misleading date at the end of November that appeared to imply an appeal deadline. In practice this was a wholly internal deadline for the VOA that was clearly designed to create a state of panic.
 
In truth, a proper Rating appeal cannot be submitted until April this year when the values come into force. It is more likely that the lay ratepayer may innocently draw attention to matters that could serve to support the VOA’s assessment or eventually increase his liability.
 
Ratepayers may therefore want to think twice before embarking on DIY Rating valuations to support the VOA’s lack of resources.
 

Sanderson Weatherall advises all business ratepayers to seek proper professional Rating advice from a fully qualified Rating surveyor.  

 

Robert Brown BSc FRICS IRRV is Head of Rating Services at northern chartered surveyors Sanderson Weatherall and is a committee member of The Rating Surveyors’ Association.

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