All FAQs

We're Mirror Mountain Ltd. (company number 15478792), registered at 166 Dalling Road, London W6 0EU, and registered with the Information Commissioner's Office for data protection under registration number ZB834320. See our Privacy Policy for exactly how we handle information. Business Rate Checker is our trade name.

It's genuinely free — there's no charge, no subscription, and no percentage taken from any saving. We're not asking for payment details at any point, and running the Check doesn't require an email address or an account. We built it this way because the honest comparison itself — is your valuation in line with similar properties nearby — is something every ratepayer should be able to see without having to trust a sales pitch first.

We're a new service — here's exactly how it works so you can judge for yourself rather than take our word for it: the free Check compares your rateable value against similar nearby properties using the official published rating data, and shows you the same comparison a surveyor would start from. As real examples come in we'll publish them here — with permission — instead of vague claims.

No — this doesn't replace or clash with your accountant, and you're welcome to loop them in. We're not the council and don't represent them; we're simply comparing your property against the official rating data to see if your valuation looks fair.

Just a postcode or address to look up the property — that's it. No email, no account or login, no bank or payment details, nothing sensitive. We don't ask for anything beyond what's needed to find and compare the property.

We compare your rateable value against similar nearby properties to see if yours looks out of line, and tell you plainly how strong that comparison is — a clear match, worth a closer look, or not enough evidence yet to say. It's a starting point, not a verdict from HMRC.

This is an estimate, not a guaranteed saving. Business Rate Checker compares your property against similar ones in the official rating list to flag where your rateable value looks high. The figures shown — including any suggested rateable value, annual saving or backdated refund — are indicative and depend on the evidence the Valuation Office Agency (VOA, now part of HMRC) accepts. The actual outcome could be higher, lower, or nil, and in rare cases a review can leave a value unchanged or increased. Nothing here is a valuation, financial or legal advice; it's information to help you decide whether to look into your bill further.

Any reduced bill or backdated refund comes to you in full, directly from the council/HMRCHis Majesty's Revenue and Customs — the UK tax authority. Since 1 April 2026 it also includes the VOA's valuation function. — we don't take a cut, and we're not involved in the payment at all. Formally challenging a valuation is a separate step you'd take yourself, under "How the rating process works" below.

There's nothing to sign up to and nothing to cancel — there's no account and no commitment. Run the Check, look at the result, and that's entirely up to you to act on or not.

Running the Check doesn't require your email, an account, or any personal details — just the property you're asking about. We don't sell data, and we don't ask for more than we need. See our full Privacy Policy for exactly what the site collects (for example, basic technical/analytics information) and your rights over it.

Your rateable valueThe official estimate of a property's annual rental value on a fixed valuation date. Your rates bill is based on this figure, not on what you actually pay in rent. (RV) is an estimate of what your property could rent for — it's not your bill. Your council multiplies that by a rate set by governmentThe pence-in-the-pound rate the government sets each year. Your rates bill is roughly Rateable Value × multiplier, before any reliefs are applied. (43.2p in the pound for a small business in 2026/27) and applies any reliefs you're entitled to, and that gives you the bill. We check whether the RV itself looks too high — that's the number worth challenging.

This is an estimate, not a guaranteed saving. Business Rate Checker compares your property against similar ones in the official rating list to flag where your rateable value looks high. The figures shown — including any suggested rateable value, annual saving or backdated refund — are indicative and depend on the evidence the Valuation Office Agency (VOA, now part of HMRC) accepts. The actual outcome could be higher, lower, or nil, and in rare cases a review can leave a value unchanged or increased. Nothing here is a valuation, financial or legal advice; it's information to help you decide whether to look into your bill further.

It's the official three-stage process for disputing a rateable value (Check, Challenge, AppealThe three-stage official process for disputing your Rateable Value: 'Check' the facts held about your property, 'Challenge' the valuation with evidence, then 'Appeal' to an independent tribunal if it's still unresolved.), run by HMRC (which absorbed the Valuation Office's functions in April 2026). Realistically it can take several months at the Check stage, and over a year if it goes all the way to Challenge. During that time you're mostly waiting on HMRC — we handle the paperwork and evidence, you're not stuck filling in forms yourself.

Acting on this is a separate, formal step — and we don't do it for you at this stage. Formally challenging a rateable value means going through the VOA/HMRC's own Check and Challenge process, with its own rules and deadlines. Business Rate Checker gives you the evidence and a starting point; it does not submit a Check or Challenge, and using this report doesn't begin any formal process or pause any deadline. If you choose to proceed, you can do it yourself through HMRC, or ask us to introduce you to a qualified (RICS) chartered surveyor who can handle it — that's a separate engagement on its own terms.

The strongest evidence is real rents agreed on genuinely comparable properties, a solid comparison against similar properties' assessed values, and anything specific to your property that affects its value — poor access, disrepair, a change of use. Vague comparisons or "it just feels too high" don't carry weight with HMRC.

No public body proactively reviews every ratepayer's bill for them — that's exactly why a checking tool is useful. We build our comparison from published rating data, but to be clear: HMRC doesn't endorse or back any third-party site, including ours — nobody gets that badge, so its absence isn't a red flag specific to us.

Independent service — not endorsed by the VOA/HMRC. Business Rate Checker is an independent service. We use published rating-list data under licence, but the Valuation Office Agency (now part of HMRC) does not endorse, back, verify or take any responsibility for this site, our comparisons or our estimates. Official rateable values and any formal decisions come only from the VOA/HMRC.

No — it's evidence, not advice. Think of it as a data-based comparison that flags when your valuation is worth a closer look, not a legal opinion. If your case is strong enough to pursue formally, you can choose to have us help with the HMRC Check, or be introduced to an independent RICS-qualified chartered surveyor for a more complex Challenge — that's a separate step you'd knowingly agree to, never something that happens automatically.

This is an estimate, not a guaranteed saving. Business Rate Checker compares your property against similar ones in the official rating list to flag where your rateable value looks high. The figures shown — including any suggested rateable value, annual saving or backdated refund — are indicative and depend on the evidence the Valuation Office Agency (VOA, now part of HMRC) accepts. The actual outcome could be higher, lower, or nil, and in rare cases a review can leave a value unchanged or increased. Nothing here is a valuation, financial or legal advice; it's information to help you decide whether to look into your bill further.

Occasionally, yes — this is the one thing people are most surprised by. Asking HMRC to look again at your valuation means they could decide it was too low, not too high, and raise it. This only happens if you go past the free Check into a formal Challenge, and we won't push you into that step if the evidence isn't strong enough to be confident — we'll tell you plainly beforehand.

Acting on this is a separate, formal step — and we don't do it for you at this stage. Formally challenging a rateable value means going through the VOA/HMRC's own Check and Challenge process, with its own rules and deadlines. Business Rate Checker gives you the evidence and a starting point; it does not submit a Check or Challenge, and using this report doesn't begin any formal process or pause any deadline. If you choose to proceed, you can do it yourself through HMRC, or ask us to introduce you to a qualified (RICS) chartered surveyor who can handle it — that's a separate engagement on its own terms.

No — and be wary of anyone who tells you it is. Our Check gives you an evidenced starting point, but the final decision sits with HMRC and depends on the specific evidence for your property. It's "worth investigating properly," not "certain to succeed."

This is an estimate, not a guaranteed saving. Business Rate Checker compares your property against similar ones in the official rating list to flag where your rateable value looks high. The figures shown — including any suggested rateable value, annual saving or backdated refund — are indicative and depend on the evidence the Valuation Office Agency (VOA, now part of HMRC) accepts. The actual outcome could be higher, lower, or nil, and in rare cases a review can leave a value unchanged or increased. Nothing here is a valuation, financial or legal advice; it's information to help you decide whether to look into your bill further.

If Small Business Rate ReliefA discount for smaller properties. Below a certain Rateable Value you pay nothing at all; above that there's a sliding-scale ('tapered') discount up to a higher threshold. already takes your bill to zero, there's nothing left to reclaim — you can't go below £0. It can still be worth confirming your RV is accurate for the future, since relief can taper or your circumstances can change, but don't expect a refund from a Check in this situation.

Properties like these — pubs, bars, hotels, gyms, cinemas and arenas — aren't valued the same way as a shop or an office. Instead of floor area and a £/m² comparison, the VOA values them on receipts and expenditure: broadly, what the business could reasonably be expected to turn over, worked back to a rateable value. That's a different SCat'Special Category' code — a short code the VOA uses to classify what type of property something is (e.g. shop, restaurant, office), used to find fair comparables. (property-type) category, and there's no consistent £/m² comparable to check it against — so our free Check can't give you a reliable "in line with the market or not" result for these property types the way it can for a shop or office. Rather than show you a comparison that would be misleading, we flag these as not yet checkable. If you run one through the Check, this is why you won't see the usual comparison — the right next step for this type of property is a surveyor experienced in licensed or leisure valuations, who can review the actual trade figures behind the assessment.

This is an estimate, not a guaranteed saving. Business Rate Checker compares your property against similar ones in the official rating list to flag where your rateable value looks high. The figures shown — including any suggested rateable value, annual saving or backdated refund — are indicative and depend on the evidence the Valuation Office Agency (VOA, now part of HMRC) accepts. The actual outcome could be higher, lower, or nil, and in rare cases a review can leave a value unchanged or increased. Nothing here is a valuation, financial or legal advice; it's information to help you decide whether to look into your bill further.

Not yet — we currently cover England only. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland run separate rating systems, so a comparison built on English rating-list data wouldn't apply to a property there.