Altus Group, officially the UK’s largest business rates agent.

Check, Challenge and Appeal

A new system for Challenging business rates bills was introduced from 1st April 2017. Check, Challenge and Appeal significantly changed the way business rates appeals were handled under a three stage process:

Check: The first stage. Ratepayers (or their representatives) check the information that the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) hold about their property.

Challenge: The ‘proposal’ stage. A proposal must be made within 4 months of the date the check was completed. If the VOA does not agree with the proposal and the ratepayer does not withdraw it, the VOA will serve a notice of decision setting out why they are not making the alteration or are making a different alteration from the one proposed.

Appeal: The final stage where, if the ratepayer is not happy with the VOA notice of decision, an appeal can be made to the independent tribunal. This must be done within 4 months of the date of the VOA decision notice.

Check

Of the total overall Check volume registered by all Agents combined, around 1 in 4 of all Checks from represented ratepayers came from Altus Group.

Altus Group recorded the highest number of Checks registered by any Agent and recorded 330% more Checks than its nearest competitor.

Altus Group also registered more Checks than its next 5 largest competitors by volume combined.

Challenge

Altus Group recorded the highest number of Challenges registered by any Agent and recorded 405% more Challenges than its nearest competitor.