You can look up your rateable value online in a couple of minutes. Working out whether it is right is a different job. Here are the warning signs we look for first, and the arguments that never work.
Finding your entry
Go to the Valuation Office's search at gov.uk/correct-your-business-rates and search by postcode or address. You will get the current rateable value and, if you set up a business rates valuation account, a detailed breakdown of how it was built up.
That breakdown is the useful part. The headline figure tells you nothing about whether it is right.
Floor areas
This is where many corrections start. The Valuation Office measures to the RICS Code of Measuring Practice - on a gross or net internal basis, zoned or overall, depending on the property - and splits the space into categories valued at different rates. A tape measure and a lease plan will tell you whether something looks wrong; proving it needs a measured survey on the same basis the Valuation Office used.
Signs worth a closer look:
- Whether the total is simply too big. Demises get split and handed back; records often do not follow.
- How space is split between categories. Main space, ancillary, storage and mezzanine are valued at different rates. Ancillary space recorded as prime space costs you money.
- Areas you no longer have. A yard given up, a floor sublet, a unit returned to the landlord.
- Areas that were never yours. Shared circulation, plant rooms, or a part of the building occupied by someone else.
If the areas look wrong, that is often the strongest place to start - but a Check built on the wrong measurement basis is easy for the Valuation Office to reject, so it needs doing properly.
Check the description
The record will describe the property - "shop and premises", "warehouse and premises", "offices and premises". If the description does not match what the building actually is, the valuation behind it is probably built on the wrong scheme.
A common one: a unit valued as offices that has in practice been used as light industrial for years, or a retail unit valued on a prime pitch when it sits round the corner from one.
Check what is included that should not be
Plant and machinery, specialist fit-out, and equipment installed by the occupier are treated differently depending on what they are. If your breakdown includes items you paid for and could remove, it is worth asking why they are in the valuation.
Compare with your neighbours
The search lets you look at other properties. Take the rateable value of a comparable unit, divide by its floor area, and compare the rate per square metre with your own.
If similar units on the same estate or the same street are assessed at a noticeably lower rate and there is no obvious reason - they are not newer, better located or better specified - that is worth investigating. It is not proof of anything on its own, because valuation turns on detail you cannot see from a listing, but it is a reasonable signal.
Things that are not evidence
Two arguments come up constantly and neither works:
- "My rent is lower than my rateable value." Possibly, but the valuation is of a notional letting on standard terms at a fixed date, not your actual deal.
- "My business is struggling." Genuinely difficult, and genuinely irrelevant to the valuation. Trading performance does not determine rateable value for most property types.
If you want relief because of hardship, that is a conversation with your council, not a valuation argument.
What happens next
If something looks wrong, the route is Check first - correcting the facts - and then Challenge if the valuation itself is still wrong. There are deadlines at each stage, only one Challenge per Check, and what you submit early on limits what you can argue later. It is the kind of process where a first attempt is hard to undo, which is why it is worth having a rating specialist run it.
Send us the address or the rates bill. The initial review is free, and we will tell you plainly whether there is a case.
Chartered Surveyor. Twelve years in business rates at Altus Group (now Ryan), four of them as a Director, and more than fifteen years of rating work across the South of England and London. RICS-regulated firm no. 897221.
Not sure whether your assessment is right?
Send us the rates bill or just the property address. We will look at the published assessment and tell you honestly whether there is a case worth pursuing. There is no charge for that first view.
Get in touchThis article is general information about how business rates work in England, written for ratepayers. It is not advice on any particular property, and the rules change. If a decision turns on it, take advice on the facts of your own case.