Our client occupies an industrial property in Liverpool used as a vehicle dealership and workshop. The property is owned on a freehold basis and we provided our recommendations on the merits of appealing their 2017 Rateable Value.

Our initial investigations included an inspection of the property, collation of rental evidence and analysis of the values applied to comparable properties in the 2017 Rating List. 

We advised our client that whilst we could agree the facts with the Valuation Office Agency the £/m² applied to their valuation was excessive and therefore an appeal was merited.  

The Check, Challenge, Appeal (CCA) system requires the submission of a Check to first establish the facts (e.g. areas) with the Valuation Office Agency. 

On completion of the Check stage, we next submitted a Challenge, where we were able to put forward our arguments for a reduction in the £/m² rate applied to the property.

Our Challenge submission drew together comparable rental evidence, 2017 rating assessment evidence, our weighting of the evidence, relevant case law and our proposed valuation.

Challenges can either be withdrawn by the proposer, agreed with the Valuation Officer or progress to a Valuation Officer’s Decision Notice where the only recourse would be for the case to be heard at Valuation Tribunal. In this instance,  the Valuation Officer ‘Well Founded’ our proposal of a -16% reduction in the £/m² rate, creating total savings of circa £27,000.