- Original Poster
- #1
Hi Everyone,
We recently took over a property (a restaurant) from a previous tenant and made significant changes to the floor area. We also believe that the current rateable value is not fair due the location of the property being in a very quiet area. There are also other business properties literally next to us or opposite side of the street with much lower rateable values just because they have a different street name.
Due to the above reasons, we submitted a check application in the beginning of September 2018 (after April 2017 there is a new process that has 3 steps/stages: check, challange and appeal) which VOA advised would take 12 weeks to give us a decision but they haven't. We called them up several times and they refuse to forward us to the case worker and the only thing they keep saying is for us to wait.
Because the check is not completed we are not allowed to submit a challenge (which was the old process - before there was no check stage, everyone submitted a challenge straight away).
Talking to our local council also does not help because the council says they have zero influence and we have got to go via VOA.
We are considering writing to our local MP because we have been told that MPs were able to influence the case workers and get the details of the case workers so that we could speak to them.
From your experience, what can be done to speed up the VOA check & challenge process?
Many thanks for your help.
We recently took over a property (a restaurant) from a previous tenant and made significant changes to the floor area. We also believe that the current rateable value is not fair due the location of the property being in a very quiet area. There are also other business properties literally next to us or opposite side of the street with much lower rateable values just because they have a different street name.
Due to the above reasons, we submitted a check application in the beginning of September 2018 (after April 2017 there is a new process that has 3 steps/stages: check, challange and appeal) which VOA advised would take 12 weeks to give us a decision but they haven't. We called them up several times and they refuse to forward us to the case worker and the only thing they keep saying is for us to wait.
Because the check is not completed we are not allowed to submit a challenge (which was the old process - before there was no check stage, everyone submitted a challenge straight away).
Talking to our local council also does not help because the council says they have zero influence and we have got to go via VOA.
We are considering writing to our local MP because we have been told that MPs were able to influence the case workers and get the details of the case workers so that we could speak to them.
From your experience, what can be done to speed up the VOA check & challenge process?
Many thanks for your help.
