Our client runs a Children’s Day Nursery which is situated in North London.

Prior to the opening of our clients nursery to the general public, they carried out a programme of extensive refurbishment and re-development.

We first inspected the property and gathered relevant information on the programme of works. This included collating and analysing evidence such as building contracts, planning permission documents and site progress reports.

After carrying out our initial investigations, we advised our client that an appeal should be lodged against their 2017 rating assessment.

We initiated the Check, Challenge, Appeal process and put forward our proposal to the Valuation Office Agency.

In rating, it has been established in case law, that if it can be demonstrated the property is incapable of beneficial occupation then the assessment should be completely removed from the Rating List, which in turn can remove all business rates liability whilst the works are underway.

We put forward our arguments to the Valuation Office Agency which included all the relevant evidence we had collated along with our proposed date for the deletion from the Rating List.

Within 2 months of submitting our appeal, the Valuation Officer agreed with our proposal and subsequently removed the assessment from the Rating List for the duration of the works. For our client, the resultant effect was total savings in terms of business rates liability of circa £73,000.