Property owners ''should consider rates appeal'' - commercial mortgages

04 September 2007

Landlords with commercial mortgages and other commercial property owners should consider appealing against the imposition of rate bills when a change in the law is implemented next year, it has been advised.

Next April will see the end to the empty property rates relief currently applied to relevant warehouses and factories, with a planned alteration to the law meaning that such properties will only be rates-free for the first six months.

Property consultancy Steven Scanlan has said that owners should look to appeal against rateable values in order to avoid heavy losses.

"[Owners] face a crippling rates burden in 2008. A typical disused factory building with a rateable value of £200,000 could attract annual rates of £88,200," Steven Scanlan surveyor Paul Edgeworth told the Manchester Evening News.

"While they are not paying rates there is no incentive to appeal against the rateable value - but there certainly will be an incentive now," Mr Edgeworth added.

Earlier this week it was advised that 95 per cent of landlords and developers were against the proposed changes to the law.