Checks and Challenges

Who is correcting their rates, and what it is worth

A business that thinks its 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. is wrong has two moves, and they happen in order. A Check corrects the facts the Valuation Office holds — floor area, description, how the property is split. Only once a Check is decided can a Challenge argue the valuation itself, using evidence from comparable properties.

Both are public once they alter the rating list, and we collect every one. Note what that means: a case the Valuation Office refuses outright changes nothing, so it never appears in this data. These are the ones that moved somebody’s bill — not a measure of how often cases succeed.

Updated from our weekly VOA ingest England and Wales, 2026 rating list

Stage one

Checks

Correcting the facts — floor area, description, splits.

Settled
6,733
RV removed
£11,550,950
Floor area corrected
106,557 m²

78% of the rateable value Checks removed came from properties being remeasured — 664 of them. Measurement is the single biggest source of a corrected bill.

Latest five

  • BST & GND 113, STOKE NEWINGTON ROAD, LONDON N16 8BXHackney · 15 Sept 20261 m²£1,250 RV
  • 38, STRATTON STREET, LONDON W1J 8LLWestminster · 15 Sept 2026£25,000 RV
  • 70, NEWCOMEN STREET, LONDON SE1 1YTSouthwark · 15 Sept 2026344 m²£115,000 RV
  • POPEYES UNIT 3, FLEMING WAY, SWINDON SN1 2NGSwindon · 15 Sept 202617 m²£9,000 RV
  • 166, STREETLY ROAD, BIRMINGHAM B23 7ALBirmingham · 15 Sept 20262 m²£250 RV
See every Check
Stage two

Challenges

Arguing the valuation, using comparable evidence.

Settled
136
RV removed
£1,062,600
Reduced the bill
97

Far rarer than Checks and far sharper: a Challenge that lands cuts a rateable value by about a fifth. A Challenge can only follow a decided Check, so today’s Check volume is next year’s Challenge volume.

Latest five

  • Address not heldTorridge · 15 Sept 2026No reduction recorded
  • 1-4, PONTELAND ROAD, NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE NE5 3AJNewcastle upon Tyne · 15 Sept 2026£8,000 RV (−36.0%)
  • 13, BULL STREET, BURNLEY BB11 1DWBurnley · 15 Sept 2026£250 RV (−2.0%)
  • VOSSLOH COGIFER UK LTD (WAREHOUSE), NORMANBY ROAD, SCUNTHORPE DN15 8FANorth Lincolnshire · 15 Sept 2026£103,000 RV (−55.7%)
  • 10B, WARBOYS AIRFIELD INDUSTRIAL ESTATE, HUNTINGDON PE28 2SHHuntingdonshire · 15 Sept 2026£9,750 RV (−37.9%)
See every Challenge