Property specialist Colliers says new figures reveal that the business rates appeal system — Check Challenge Appeal (CCA) — appears skewed against the ratepayer.
Many businesses are now seeing their challenges struck out, often on a technicality, says Colliers.
In the first 12 months of the new 2023 list, 63,100 checks (the first part of the appeal process) were registered, of which almost 17% remain outstanding. However, only 7,810 have progressed to the challenge (second) stage of the process, and of these challenges, 5,930 (76%) are still outstanding.
Only 990 (12.6%) of challenges have been resolved, but nearly as many (890, or 11.4%) have been labelled as incomplete by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) and therefore struck out or declared void.
Colliers says this level of rejection, often on a technicality, is unacceptable and shows how arduous this system is becoming for ratepayers.
Latest CCA stats for the 2017 list, also reported this week, reveal as many as 22,900 challenges are still outstanding. This means that, more than seven years after the start of the 2017 rating list, 12% of the appeals submitted have still not been resolved.
And another 22,280 challenges (11.8%) have also been marked incomplete or struck out. Comparing the 2017 stats from May 2023 with today’s further reveals that there are 3,890 new 2017 incomplete cases where, in most cases, the ratepayer will have no further recourse to appeal.
“The VOA’s lack of progress in resolving these high appeal numbers, together with the numbers it has struck out, should certainly raise eyebrows,” said John Webber, head of business rates at Colliers.
“Given the worrying number of challenges outstanding from the 2023 list, it seems that the VOA is under pressure to reduce the numbers. Looking at the increasing number that are now labelled incomplete, and thus void, even though most of these have been submitted with professional help, this appears to be one way they are doing this.
“It is astonishing the numbers struck out on technical grounds almost equals the total number resolved. The VOA’s refusal to explain or to negotiate their decisions is also extremely unhelpful.”
