The current turmoil in the commercial property market, with rents being impossible to pay for many, without reductions and discounts, should remind us of the need to appeal our business rates.
We will not emerge from lockdown with the same commercial profile that we have traditionally displayed. We are likely to have changed in one or two ways:
(1) Our offices may now have surplus space, especially if working from home becomes the norm.
(2) Those of us in retail may well have radically re-designed our floor-space, not only to comply with covid restrictions, but also to present a fresh public image or product range.
In either of these cases, there are likely to be opportunities for a successful rates appeal, involving substantial rebates and a sounder basis for future rates demands (and the next revelation, scheduled for 2022).
Commercial Property Services (CPA) is eager to offer a free consultation to all businesses, retail or manufacturing, commercial or logistics, whose circumstances have been changed by the lockdown.
CPA urges businesses not to let the cloud of lockdown obscure the silver lining of opportunities to address the age-old problem of ever-increasing business rates.
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