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  4. Understanding your Rateable Value

Understanding your Rateable Value

Business rates are based on your property’s rateable value. The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) maintains the Non-domestic Rating List. This includes setting the rateable values of business properties.

Business rates are charged on most non-domestic properties, like:

  • Shops
  • Offices
  • Pubs
  • Warehouses
  • Factories
  • Holiday rental homes or Guest houses

You’ll probably be liable for business rates if you use a building or part of a building for non-domestic purposes.

To understand why your property has a certain Rateable Value, please click: www.gov.uk/introduction-to-business-rates/how-your-rates-are-calculated.

Or to find out more about business rates, go to: www.gov.uk/introduction-to-business-rates.

Please note: If you would like information about holiday homes (and being assessed for non-domestic rates, rather than Council Tax), please refer to the government's business rates guidance on self-catering and holiday let accommodation.

Contacting the Valuation Office Agency

You can contact the Valuation Office Agency using their general enquiries form: www.gov.uk/contact-voa

If you are concerned that your rateable value may be incorrect, you can check the information the VOA has used and let them know if something is incorrect using this guide: www.gov.uk/guidance/check-and-challenge-your-business-rates-valuation-step-by-step

Revaluation 2023

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) regularly updates the rateable values of all business and other non-domestic properties (properties that are not just private homes) in England and Wales. This is called a revaluation.

Rateable values are the amount of rent a property could have been let for on a set valuation date. For the 2023 valuation, that date was 1 April 2021. We use these rateable values to calculate business rates bills.

Revaluations are carried out to reflect changes in the property market, which means that business rates bills are based on more up-to-date information.

The last revaluation came into effect on 1 April 2023.

For further information please see the video: What is a revaluation?