Putting Business Rates into Perspective
GN has always been a niche practise and we aim to remain so. We do not seek to waste your time or ours. We help businesses reduce their exposure to business rates from all sorts of angles, so we will be open with you and seek instruction only when we feel we have a realistic chance of securing savings.
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Reasons to Contact us
- Receipts and expenditure method including pubs, hotels, holiday cottages, petrol filling stations etc
- Build costs method including public buildings, leisure centres, independent and state schools, purpose built surgeries and clinics etc.
- Hybrid methods including renewable energy sites, riding stables, agricultural or horticultural businesses etc
We can advise on what is allowable and what is not – these valuations are often complex.
- Be in an office where you operate from adjacent floors
- Operate from an industrial estate where you occupy adjacent units
- Let neighbouring holiday accommodation or offer units on a complex
All of these examples could lead to substantial savings following a change in legislation commonly known as ‘the stair case tax reversal’ which requires action to be taken no later than 31st December 2019.

Business Rates are a hefty burden to any business and as a property tax they rank the highest in the developed world. Here’s why (2017/18 data for England Wales and Scotland).
Business Rates Net Collection (after all reliefs) | £27 billion |
(£23.9 billion just in England) | |
Council Tax Collection (after all reliefs) | £32 billion |
Corporation tax | £56 billion |
Only one challenge can be made, on the same grounds as you navigate this complex process, so choosing the right expert team to represent you is crucial. Get it wrong at any stage and the opportunity to maximise business rate savings are greatly reduced. There is a solution: the GN RV Appeal Service. This expert service will guide and represent you through all stages of Check, Challenge and Appeal.
After an initial consultation with Goodman Nash the first stage for any rate payer is to register all commercial properties on the HMRC portal and confirm the appointment of your agent.
Once you have completed the above, we will begin detailed proceedings to CHECK and CHALLENGE your Rateable Value. Finally, where necessary and only once we have agreed with you the best course of action, there may be a requirement to APPEAL the valuation office decisions.
The CHECK stage ordinarily requires you to agree, amongst other matters, the floor areas of your properties. This is no simple exercise at all. You may have detailed drawings, measurements of the commercial property you occupy? If yes, these can prove helpful. If no, then we may need to conduct a survey to provide such accuracy in readiness for evidence. False disclosure of the total floor areas can lead to civil penalties so precision is required.
Once the Valuation Office agrees the facts presented, you have 4 months to submit a CHALLENGE. Here starts the process which is hugely biased against a ratepayer. The challenge must contain all points of evidence you will ever wish to present. The collation and presentation of evidence will need to include rental details on similar properties in the locality; without such details most challenges will fail. The valuation officer does not need to disclose his information upfront, and only in basic summary when replying with a Decision Notice.
With our expertise and wealth of national property data we would expect in most occurrences to deliver success for you as the rate payer at the CHECK or CHALLENGE stage. On occasion we may advise you to APPEAL the decision the valuation officer reached against your property. There are costs involved in the submission of an appeal, which are recoverable if successful.
To get this right every step of the way, we think you truly need the professional help from the expert team at GN. A free consultation to determine the validity of any appeal on your behalf and to support you further, our fees are offered on a success based outcome, with small one-off charges if we need to carry out a measured survey to complete the CHECK stage. These Survey fees are reimbursed where we have managed to secure rateable value reductions.
(a) Within 6 months of becoming a new owner or tenant of business property
(b) Within 6 months of a material change occurring
The right to make an appeal at any time during the Rating List remains, but you may only make it on the same ground once.