Properties are revalued for business rates purposes every 3 years and the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) – which is being scrapped and taken pack into its parent government body, HMRC, by April 2026 – has just announced the publication of the 2026 valuation list against which business rates liabilities will be assessed with effect from 1 April 2026. It would be prudent for all business owners that occupy business property that has a rateable value to check the new valuation and, if concerned about the valuation figure, take advice about challenging it through the Check/Challenge/Appeal process. The VOA has also published helpful advice on where to find the new valuation figures and how to go about challenging them if business rates payers consider them to be incorrect.
It will not be possible to challenge the 2026 valuation figures until they come into effect on 1 April 2026. However, if there are any concerns about the current 2023 valuation figures, those can be challenged up until the end of March 2026. There is a formal process to be followed and if that is not commenced before 31 March 2026, the opportunity to challenge the 2023 valuations will be lost.
Successful challenges that reduce the valuations provided in the valuation list will reduce the business rates liability and, if close to the threshold value, may take the valuation below the threshold for small business rate relief, which is £12,000 with a tapered relief above that figure up to £15,000.
If business rates payers feel unable to challenge valuations themselves, there are numerous agents who offer that service. However, the VOA regularly warns against rogue business rates agents, some of whom can charge a significant percentage of any savings made and/or lock clients in to long term contracts that may cover future revaluations. Business rates agents who are members of the Rating Surveyor’s Association (RSA), Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), or Institute of Revenues, Rating, Valuation (IRRV) must follow rating agent standards which provide clients with re-assurance that terms of engagement will be clear as to the work that will be undertaken and the fees that will apply.
We are members of the RICS and the RICS publishes a mandatory professional standard that applies to rating consultancy undertaken by its members. Our Mark Sanders is also a RICS registered valuer and a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and represents clients in rating Tribunal hearings if required.
