Businesses urged to be cautious
The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) have announced the suspension of three business rates agents. The suspension of Rateable Value Experts and Re-Rates UK was announced on January 2nd. Rate Masters Limited trading as ‘My Rates’ were suspended on January 22nd.
The VOA have not specified the exact reasons for the suspensions and have simply said that they are investigating a potentially serious breach of their agent standards.
While the suspension is in force, the VOA won’t work with or accept any information from the affected agents. This is likely to cause difficulties for any customers that they are representing, however the VOA say they have written to customers that are affected.
As part of the announcements, the VOA have reminded businesses of the need to be cautious of agents who:
- try to pressure you to make a decision or sign a contract.
- say they are acting on behalf of the VOA or forward emails to you that they claim are from the VOA.
- demand large sums of money up front.
- make claims about ‘unclaimed credits’ or similar.
It is worth noting that there is no need to use an agent to handle your business rates related matters. The VOA provides a free online service where you can challenge your rateable value for yourself.
The VOA also provides a checklist of agents that you can use to select an agent. They point out that using this is safer than allowing an agent to select you.