South West businesses need to act promptly not to miss out on significant amounts of Business Rates savings, dating back to 2015. December 31 2019 is the deadline to appeal to re-merge split rating assessment, in some cases enabling business owners and occupiers of multi-occupied offices to claim back Small Business Rates Relief.
Many business owners have no idea that they might be entitled to challenge their Rateable Value. “There were some legal changes to the way the Valuation Office treated multi-occupied offices which meant that many businesses lost their Small Business Relief and saw their rates bill go up.” Explained Rebecca Cook, Business Rates specialist at Vickery Holman Property Consultants. “This has been reversed, which means we have been able to successfully achieve the correct Rateable Value for businesses right across the South West. In some cases, many thousands of pounds have been returned to those business owners. Given the significant cost of business rates, we are keen that more businesses contact us to check that they are not paying too much.”
Business Rates are complex and working out how to manage the appeal process and achieve the best Rateable Value can be daunting. Given the savings that can be achieved, an appeal against Business Rates could make all the difference to a business owner. “Of course, it’s not just multi-occupied office premises that we can help. We recently achieved savings of £190,000 for a Cornish car dealership based on how their floor space had been calculated.” added Rebecca Cook.