Business rates valuation advice

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emmavix
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Jan 08, 2016 2:13 pm

Business rates valuation advice

Post by emmavix »

We're in a bit of an unusual situation as our property is a former care home which had a £0 business rates valuation. The property itself has a theatre/hall (seating 150), several meeting rooms & will have bedspaces, probably 40 if we include accommodation for visiting staff. We're running it as an activity centre though we also have permission to let it for holiday lets. I'd very much like to know if its rateable value will be over £15,000 as this will affect how we set up & whether we run it as a charity or privately.

Looking at other activity centres, the valuations seem to be worked out at between £70 & £115 per bed space with no additions for extra facilities (possibly because these can't be hired out separately). We could hire out our theatre separately but would still very much like to be under the £15,000 threshold.

I'd like to know if there is anyone who could give me an estimate of rateable value, a local surveyor?

Thanks for any help.

Victoria
russellt
Posts: 353
Joined: Tue Dec 09, 2014 8:03 am
Location: Ivybridge, Devon, UK
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Post by russellt »

You should start by looking at the government's 'Valuation Office Agency' website. The VOA are they guys who gather rental evidence and look at every 'hereditament' (property) in England & Wales to determine its valuation for rating purposes. When a valuation has been determined, a rating multiplier is applied(around 45p in the £), in order to determine your tax liability.

There are lots of different reliefs which can applied, including Small Business Rate Relief. The chancellor recently announced that the very smallest businesses, around 400,000 I think, would now be exempt from rates. I cannot recall what the threshold was going to be. It used to be something like £6k valuation.

The VOA website will allow you to look at the current valuation for your property. You can also look at similar properties, to make a comparison, and their 'scheme of valuation' - a template for different property types - will give you a clue as to how they reach their valuation.

If your property hasn't previously been rated, you can fill in a form, &/or ask for a Valuation Officer to contact you or maybe visit your premises if it is unique and therefore difficult to fit into a particular scheme of valuation.

Valuation Officers are sometimes less than keen on providing an evidence-based substantiation for their rating assessment - it is a long-standing issue. So, once you have a valuation, you can contact a local firm of surveyors to ask if the valuation is accurate. If they think it is too high, they will offer to submit an appeal to the VOA on your behalf. Many of these firms work on a 'no win - no fee' basis.

Just be careful what you sign as a contract with them, though. Some of the terms can be misleading, particularly wrt how much you pay as a % of savings, and for how many years this will be applicable.

(I'm not a rating surveyor, but have worked alongside rating surveyors for several years. So pls take my comments as a general intro only.) Hope it helps.
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