Latest Information

Business rates exemption

30/03/2009

Empty properties with a rateable value of less than £15,000 will be exempt from business rates for the financial year 2009/2010 under proposals unveiled in the pre-budget report.

Property Associate, Helen Marsh at KBL Solicitors explains “From April 2008 the Rating (Empty Properties) Act 2007 removed business rates relief on most unoccupied properties meaning that commercial property owners have had to pay rates on industrial and warehouse premises unoccupied for more than 6 months and most other commercial properties unoccupied for more than 3 months after the previous reliefs were scrapped”.

“The Act has been widely criticised by the property industry as an additional strain on businesses at a time of economic difficulty and has been labelled “bombsite Britain” as some commercial property owners have demolished empty buildings rather than pay tax on them”.
“Make sure you claim the relief you’re entitled to” warns Helen “as the widening of the availability of this relief for business rates is only a temporary measure”.

In the pre-budget report the Government maintain that, in the long term, it is right to charge rates on empty properties, as this increases incentives to re-let and re-use empty property. The proposal in the Pre-Budget Report was that the relief would only be available for a year and there are no current plans to permanently reverse the effects.

ENDS For more information, please contact Gill Hart or Kirsty Carss at KBL on 01204 527777