Rates Audits

Business Rates in England, Scotland and Wales are the main form of property tax. Since 1990 (1995 in Scotland) rates have been charged via the National Non Domestic Rate (NNDR). Rates are collected locally, paid to central government and then distributed back to local authorities on a per capita basis.

407 Billing Authorities collect NNDR. This means, in theory, there could be up to 407 interpretations of the charging regulations and 407 computer systems calculating incorrectly. However, in practice, any Councils now outsource their NNDR collection and this can lead to the same mistakes being repeated across several Councils.

MUA Property Services offer a bespoke Rate Auditing service. We can go as far back as 1990 to make sure that you have been charged correctly. We will liaise with the council on your behalf to obtain refunds and ensure they are correct. There is no risk to you as our fees are an agreed percentage of any refunds we obtain.

Amongst our successes:

• £142000 refund where a Council had input the wrong data on their computer leading to ten years of over charging
• £87000 refund where the Council was wrongly interpreting regulations
• £45000 refund where a Council had been incorrectly charging.

We also offer a rate checking service where, for a yearly charge per site, we will administer your NNDR demands. We will act as first contact for councils, receiving and checking all demands and ensuring they are correct before authorising them to clients. We also chase councils to ensure refunds are made in a timely fashion. We have saved a client over £1Million with this service.