At the leading edge in the provision of advice and solutions
Avison Young specialises in the provision of rating advice and has considerable experience throughout the country acting on behalf of owners and occupiers. We pride ourselves on being at the leading edge in the provision of advice, solving and providing solutions to our clients' rating issues. We represent our clients in discussions with the Valuation Office, Billing Authorities and where required in court as may be appropriate.
On receiving instructions from our clients, we will meet with them, inspect the property and thereafter, design and implement a solution to reduce our clients' liability. Rates are a tax that are paid by the occupier of a property or, in the case of empty properties, the company entitled to occupy the property. Each property is assessed to its Rateable Value which, broadly speaking, represents the rent that would have been paid for the property on 1st April 2015. These values came into effect on 1st April 2017 and are used to calculate the liability attributable to individual properties.
Based upon these values, Billing Authorities will send our rate demands on an annual basis. These assessments may be challenged at any time or following a change to the property or the locality. Examples of these would include the demolition of part of the property, building works that are affecting the property either internally or externally, or other factors such as roadworks, bypass works, that affect the notional rent that we must assume.