Hotels’ Business Rates Reduced by Over £190,000 with RVA Surveyors
Case study:
Hotel | Greater London
Hotel based in Romford, with easy access to Central and East London attractions has one of the largest savings to date in RVA history.
KEY
FACTS
£195,860
SAVINGS
Hotel
PROPERTY TYPE
The Client
Our client are a well-established hotel based in Romford, Greater London and just 35 minutes from Central London. With a 70-room capacity including family, double and a king-sized rooms, they have retained many visitors to the London area for over 10 years.
The Problem
Business Rates for hotels are calculated differently by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) than that of other commercial properties. Instead of basing on price/m2 to calculate the Rateable Value (RV), the VOA look at the number of bed spaces, room sizes and annual turnover and estimate through what is called Fair Maintainable Trade (FMT).
However, our client’s property was valued solely on the number of rooms and room types in the property which led to a total Rateable Value (RV) of £407,500.
Once one of RVA Surveyors was assigned to do an in-depth inspection of the hotel, information held by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) was required and a Detailed Value Report (DVR) was requested by the surveyor. This report would give an in-depth description of the property, including how the VOA calculated the RV.
It was on this report that our expert surveyor found the VOA had based the RV on incorrect information.
Instead of basing the Rateable Value on the correct total of rooms and room types, the VOA based the RV on 108 rooms all as double en-suites when in fact the hotel had 70 rooms in total – 60 double, 8 family, and 2 king size rooms.
The Solution
To correct this, the surveyor submitted a Check to the VOA highlighting the discrepancies found on the Detailed Value Report. Evidence collected to support this claim included an updated floor plan showcasing the correct number of rooms and room types, together with photographic evidence and supporting documents.
Double rooms have the lowest value across all hotels and though evidence was submitted to show more family and king size rooms in the property (which have a higher value), the significant reduction in the number of doubles shown on the plan led to one of the biggest reductions in RV for a single property at RVA Surveyors.
The Outcome
By submitting evidence to dispute the VOA’s information they had on the property, RVA Surveyors was successful in achieving a substantial reduction in the Rateable Value from £407,500 to £267,500, and a total saving of £195,860 dating back to the start of the current rating list (1st April 2023).
The success of the Check now means our client can enter the 2026 rating list with business rates that truly align with the property’s space, while also reducing their historic, current and future liabilities.
