His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Valuation Office (VO) regularly publish statistics on the number and outcomes of challenges to business rates which, for those who are interested in such things, make interesting reading.
As a reminder for readers, the process for challenging rateable value (RV) is to ask the VO to check the list entry to correct any errors or anomalies. If that does not produce a satisfactory outcome, the next stage is to submit a formal challenge with evidence to back up the case that is being made. The third stage for an unsuccessful challenge is to submit an appeal to the Valuation Tribunal (VT).
So far as the 2017 list is concerned, the statistics show that, so far, 848,400 checks have been resolved. Of those, around 2% resulted in an increase in the RV, 18% in a decrease and 80% were unchanged. Of those checks, around 88% were dealt with by agents and around 12% by the rate payers representing themselves.
There were some significant differences in outcomes in checks when an agent was acting as compared with ratepayers acting for themselves. The RV increased in around 1% of cases where agents were acting and around 8.5% of cases where ratepayers represented themselves. The RV decreased in around 16% of cases when agents were acting as compared with 37% when ratepayers were acting for themselves.
There was a stronger advertisement for agents with outcomes for appeals to the VT. Of the 7,390 resolved appeal cases the RV decreased in around 58% of cases when an agent was acting as compared with around 45% when the rate payer was acting for themselves.
It is still relatively early in terms of statistics for the 2023 valuation list but they are nevertheless interesting. Of the 253,050 resolved cases, the RV increased in around 3% of cases and decreased in around 24% of cases. Around 78% of checks were handled by an agent. The proportion that increased was around 2% when an agent was acting and over 7% when the rate payer was acting for themselves. Again, rate payers are doing better than agents in terms of securing decreases in the RV at the check stage with around 20% of cases resulting in a decrease when an agent was acting and 37% when the rate payer was representing themselves. The agents then do a bit better on appeal with a reduction rate of around 54% as against 50% when the rate payer represented themselves.
It is, of course, important to remember the saying about “lies, damned lies, and statistics”, and any agents reading this may well say that with 80% plus of all challenges being dealt with by agents, and with agents tending to be instructed to deal with the less straightforward cases, it is to be expected that agents will have a lower % success rate with checks but a higher success rate than rate payers on appeal.
Our Mark Sanders is a RICS registered valuer who represents clients in rating disputes and always encourages clients who feel able to do so to represent themselves at the check stage of the process. The check stage usually resolves any factual errors or anomalies, such as incorrect floor areas or unit numbers and around occupation and use, which can result in the incorrect valuation scheme being applied. However, where there is a difference of opinion on matters of valuation opinion, such as market rent levels at the relevant valuation date, or the appropriate quality adjustments to be made to reflect particular site characteristics, it will usually be necessary for a suitably qualified and experienced agent to prepare a challenge with a view to making an appeal if the challenge is not successful. In such cases, it is important that the challenge deals with all relevant matters as it is not possible to raise new arguments at the appeal stage that have not been covered in the challenge.
The most recent set of statistics for both the 2017 and 2023 valuation lists can be viewed here. The % figures mentioned above have been calculated from those.
