Checking and challenging your rateable value
This consultation sets out the government's proposals to improve transparency in the business rates valuation and formal challenge system.
The rating system should provide an easy to use and prompt opportunity for ratepayers to understand their rateable value, challenge it if necessary and gain reductions where it is found to be too high. Under the current system, ratepayers cannot see the rental evidence on which rateable values are based and make large numbers of speculative challenges with little or no explanation of why they think their rateable value is wrong.
About 3 quarters of challenges result in no change, but the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) cannot identify those challenges until very late in the process. The resulting delays mean that those businesses whose rateable values are too high have to wait for refunds.
This consultation sets out the government’s proposals to reform the current system for explaining and challenging rateable values.