Peter Foley is our resident guru here at CPA, and has been passionately following the shifting world of business rates for many years. With a keen political insight, Peter’s writing reveals how policy change is key to understanding your business rates further, and how this could translate into substantial savings. In his weekly column, Peter also outlines a desired path forward, with changes we’d like to see implemented for a fairer system on the nation's business rates.
It is nigh-on impossible to know what your business rates should be, without detailed knowledge of what your neighbours, or kindred businesses in the UK, are paying.
Visit two adjacent buildings, warehouses, industrial units, or retail stores. Despite external similarities, once inside, we can easily spot differences in the layout of plant or storage and sales areas.
It is this "quirkiness" that, subject to a professional survey, can lead to lower business rates, and sizable cash rebates. These appeals are often known as "tone" appeals.
Effective tone comparisons depend on sophisticated databases, of a quality equal to that on which the VOA first established your rateable value.
We constantly run detailed checks on all properties in the UK, to monitor changes in the RV that could favourably affect your own business. We then incorporate these comparators into a "tone" appeal to the billing authority.
This crucial information is not available to the average enterprise, and without it, appeals are probably doomed not to succeed.
Our tone appeal's have a success rate of 80%, making them an incredibly lucrative option to explore if you've been unsuccessful in business rates appeals in the past.
We offer an initial consultation, together with its submission of a detailed challenge is free of charge. And our competitive commission rates are transparent and agreed upon in advance with you, the client, without any hidden extras.