THE NON-DOMESTIC RATING ACT 2023
The Non-Domestic Rating Act 2023 was passed into legislation in October 2023. However, much of its contents required subsequent secondary legislation to bring relevant sections into effect.
This blog, a second in a series of three considering the changes to business rates to be seen from April 2024 looks as some of the relevant aspects of this.
Some of the changes are technical in nature both those that will see the greatest impact on ratepayers in the long-term are as follows:
1. Improvement Relief
A relief that will offer 100% relief on works that will expand or improve a property, for a period of 12 months. Improvement Relief will commence for eligible improvements which are completed on or after 1 April 2024.
In effect the Valuation Office Agency will issue a certificate showing the value attributed to the improvement which will attract the 100% relief.
2. Heat Network Relief
Confirming a relief that until now was discretionary. You can get heat network relief if your property is only used or mainly used as a ‘heat network’. A heat network supplies heating or cooling to other properties from a central source. To be eligible, the heat network must:
- take its energy from a low carbon source,
- supply heating and cooling to other properties - for example, homes, shops, public buildings, hospitals and offices
The heat network must not supply heat or cooling for industrial use - for example, to create products in factories.
3. Changes to Completion Notices
This is one of the key elements of the Non-Domestic Rating Act 2023 that will have the potential to impact on a number of ratepayers, particularly those who will have redeveloped premises and had seen them deleted from the rating list whilst these works were underway.
In cases such as this, a billing authority can now serve a “Completion Notice” where it is of the opinion that the building is either completed (so is ready to be occupied) or can reasonably be expected to be completed within the next three months.
So why is this important?
The impact of a Completion Notice is that it sets the date from which business rates will become charged. Doing nothing will only mean that the next notice a ratepayer will receive will be the rates demand!
What ratepayers need to be wary of is that there is only a four-week period from the service of the notice to appeal if they believe that the property is not complete or is not likely to be completed by the date stated on the notice.
The Billing Authority will expect a ratepayer to pay the rates shown on the demand notice even if an appeal is pending and may even take enforcement action, so it is vital that any errors with a completion notice are raised before the demand notice is issued.
How Colliers and Accurates can help
Accurates, a division of Colliers will make sure that a ratepayer will receive all of the relevant reliefs that they are entitled to, liaising with the billing authority where necessary. In addition, the team is geared up to ensuring that the change with the service of Completion Notices does not catch out a ratepayer who may not be aware of the new procedures.
We will check the validity of the Completion Notice and pursue any appeal against an incorrectly issued Completion Notice.
Over the years Colliers and Accurates have a proven track records of saving clients millions of pounds by way of business rates ensuring that these clients pay a fair contribution to the local economies in which they are based.
Author:
Richard Sheppard
Head of Accurates
