Fenland Council Business Rates

I own a property that has a shop on the ground floor and a flat above. I live in the flat and rent out the shop.

Business Rates seem to be clearly defined yet Fenland Council seem to make a hash of it every time there is a change of use. 

• If the rateable value is less than £12,000 (Mine is £7,900) AND
• This is the only property that the business runs from THEN
• 100% Business Rates Relief is applied.

Also, if the property is vacant due to a tenant leaving, then the landlord has 3 months to find another tenant. During that time, again 100% Business Rates Relief is applied. https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-business-rate-relief/empty-property-relief

For Fenland Council, Business Rates and Council Tax are handled by Anglia Revenues Partnership (ARP) but they use the same rules.

• https://www.angliarevenues.gov.uk/services/businessrates/relief_exemption/smallbusinessrelief.cfm
• https://www.angliarevenues.gov.uk/services/businessrates/emptyproperties/
  

So, My last tenant leaves on the last day of February this year. They inform ARP, and then I had to.

It took me 44 days to get a new tenant in. I informed ARP, as did they.

That should be the end of it for me. But no, they issue me with two bills. One for March and one for half of April.

In total they want me to pay £475.21 or £10.80 for each day it was empty.
But why ?
The rateable value is clearly shown on the bill, yet no relief has been applied.
They have also ignored the fact that their own Government rules say I have 3 months, and I have used half of that.

Contacting Fenland Council/ARP over bills now is so cumbersome. The email I used previously no longer works. Instead you have to work your way through a list of options on a General Enquiry Form. Each generates a reference number, even though some of the options say later on you cannot use a form here.

I emailed a different address, but one that is shown on the bill saying basically what I have written above. They replied saying it has nothing to do with them but would forward the email to the ARP team

Two months pass I think they have resolved the issue internally. But no, I get an email reply saying that I was using the property as an Office so the Empty Property relief cannot be applied. The rateable value question was ignored. Even if it was an office for 44 days, it would still qualify as it is the only only Office I have ? It wasn't used as an Office as I needed to clear to the shop for potential tenants.

Then you are left with the joke of their Complaints process.

This is one of those, create a Reference Code, but send you somewhere else instead. Click on the link they suggest and it takes you to Fenland Council website.

Fair enough I foolishly think. I will email info@fenland.gov.uk

I get an email back fairly quickly:

Good afternoon

Thank you for your email.

Unfortunately, we do not deal with business rates therefore you will need to contact Anglia Revenues Partnership

So annoying I want to scream. But this blog moan will do instead.