Part 1: Minor List alterations by valuation officers
The Valuation Office Agency's (VOA) technical manual for the rating of business (non-domestic) property.
1.1 The requirements for Valuation Officers to notify alterations that are made in local lists to ratepayers and billing authorities are set out in The Non-Domestic Rating (Alteration of Lists and Appeals)(England) Regulations 2009 (SI 2009/2268) and The Non-Domestic Rating (Alteration of Lists and Appeals)(Wales) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/758).
1.2 Within four weeks of altering a list the Valuation Officer must notify the relevant authority of the effect of all alterations that are made (Reg. 17(1)) and this requirement is fulfilled when the billing authority is served with schedules of alterations and schedules of Minor list alterations.
1.3 The Valuation Officer is also required to notify the ratepayer of alterations that are made but not in all circumstances. Exceptions when notification is not required include: alterations made solely to correct a clerical error, or to reflect a change in the address of the hereditament or in the area of the relevant authority (Reg.17(3)).
1.4 Where there is any doubt as to whether or not any notification is required, VOs should seek advice from the CVG Technical Adviser.
2.1 There can be no definitive explanation as to what exactly constitutes a clerical error. In general, however, a clerical error could occur in a number of ways including misinterpretation of instructions, arithmetical errors, incorrect computer operation, etc. However, as a matter of policy any error in a Rating List, the correction of which could affect a ratepayer’s liability e.g. any alteration to the description or rateable value, should not be treated as a clerical error unless the correction can be supported by ‘external’ documentation such as an agreement form or Tribunal decision.
2.2 If an error occurs in any Notice of Alteration sent to a ratepayer, whether or not a proposal against the alteration has already been received a correction should always be made by serving a fresh Notice, notwithstanding the four week time limit specified in Reg 17(1). This has no effect on the validity of the alteration made by the VO and does not create or extend any period within which a proposal may be made.
2.3 If a property is inserted into the wrong Rating List, usually by entry of the incorrect billing authority code, the ratepayer should be notified of both the deletion and also the alteration of the List for the new entry. This will entitle proposals to be made against either alteration.
Alteration of Property Address
3.1 Any alteration to the address of a hereditament in a Rating List falls under the exception in regulation 17(3) [see paragraph 1.3 above] and is legally classed as a minor rating list alteration for which no notification is required by law, but for operational reasons certain address changes should be notified to ratepayers in the same way as any other list changes.
3.2 Business Rates Information Letter 05/2002 issued by the DTLR (now MHCLG) to BA’s Chief Finance Officers confirmed that address only changes should not affect rate liability and that these changes will be shown on the separate Minor List Changes Schedule. However, this schedule only contains alterations made by MRL case-types and consequently many address-only changes will not be shown in the Minor List Changes Schedule if they have been effected by VOR/BAR case-types.
3.3 A minor rating list alteration should have no effect on liability whether it is carried out by an MRL case-type or otherwise and therefore where an alteration to the address makes the existing list entry ‘historic’ consideration must be given to the effect on any IPP, VOR or BAR linked to the historic entry.
3.4 It is important to distinguish between ‘minor rating list alterations’, which include ALL address changes, and those made using the MRL (Minor Rating List) case type:
Change of Address by MRL Case-type
3.5 A detailed description of the MRL case-type is given in the NDR Procedures Manual.
3.6 An MRL case-type directly over-writes the address appearing in the database and ripples through to outstanding and settled cases, to other applications, such as CRAC and to previous list years and no record of the former address is retained on the system. For this reason it must only be used for minor corrections to spelling of Firm’s Name, Number/Name or Postcode elements of addresses, e.g.
from:
“Jhon Smith 1, High Street, Anytown, CT2O 2TP”
to:
“John Smith 1, High Street, Anytown, CT20 2TP”
3.7 If an MRL case-type could be used to make alterations to the street, town or county elements of an address it could prove impossible to tie up paperwork, such as a proposal, associated with the earlier address, and this is why these elements of the address structure cannot be altered by MRL case-type. An MRL case-type should not be used for a significant change to any part of the address. A significant change is one that results in an address that is likely to be interpreted as relating to a different hereditament.
3.8 For the same reason, it would cause confusion to the ratepayer if a significant address change is effected by an MRL case-type since no Notice is produced by RSA and the ratepayer would be unaware that the entry had been changed. Whilst there would be no effect on rate liability it is likely to give rise to a complaint if a ratepayer who has been used to receiving bills in respect of, for example:
“John Smith 1, High Street, Anytown, Kent, CT20 2TP”
without Notice started to receive bills in respect of:
“Joe Bloggs 25, High Street, Anytown, Kent, CT19 1XX”
3.9 Any such change must be made by use of a VOR/BAR case-type and notwithstanding the provisions of Regulation 17(3) which do not require notification to be served, good practice dictates that a Notice type G (VO7011c – Significant Address only change) should be sent. This will have no effect on rate payment liability and should attract no subsequent appeal
3.10 An MRL case-type must also not be used for ANY alteration where an outstanding IPP has been transmitted to the Valuation Tribunal Service (VTS) as this will cause integrity problems between the VOA and VTS computer systems
4.1 As described above, where the change in the address is significant it must be carried out using a VOR/BAR ‘one to one’ reconstitution case type (Reason for Report code ‘10’) and Notice type G should be sent. This notice must only be sent if there has been no change in the unit of assessment (i.e. Not splits/mergers) or the RV.
4.2 Where an address is changed by VOR/BAR report code 10 the assessment status of the previous list entry will become ‘3 – Previously Current’ and any IPP linked to it will become ‘historic’.
4.3 This has caused difficulties in the past where a proposal challenging the RV in the compiled list has been rendered ‘historic’ by a VOR address change and no proposal had been made in response to the address alteration. The VOA interpretation of the regulations meant that no effect could be given to any reduction agreed in respect of the ‘historic’ proposal.
4.4 Following representations by the rating professional bodies MHCLG have indicated address-only changes are to be treated as minor rating list alterations and the correct approach to adopt is now as follows.
The principle behind these instructions apply equally to 2005 and later list proposals. The approach to be adopted is below:-
Where the VO alters a list entry to correct the address with effect from compilation date, any outstanding proposal should be re-linked to the new address. This ensures that any fresh proposal will be flagged as a potential duplicate. Agents or ratepayers should not be asked to withdraw proposals solely on the grounds that the list entries to which they are linked have been made historic by an address-only change.
6.1 Where an IPP is linked to a list entry that arose from a post-compilation alteration, such as a reduction following an MCC, and it is made historic by an address-only change the IPP must remain linked to the historic MCC list entry and upon settlement should be cleared in the usual way. This will result in an historic only alteration of the RV.
6.2 As soon as the IPP case has been subject to QA procedures a VOR, Report reason 11, must be raised and linked to the ‘current’ address. The non-standard reason for report must be input as ‘Pursuant to IPP XXXX’, where XXXX represents the case number of the IPP.
6.3 The normal limitations on the Effective Date imposed by Regulation 14 of the Non-Domestic Rating (Alteration of Lists and Appeals) Regulations 2009 SI No 2268 will not apply to the VOR case because it is giving effect to the agreed proposal and consequently the date to be used will depend on when the proposal was made, for example:
7.1 It is not anticipated that VOs will trawl through settled cases to identify any case that would have met the criteria outlined above. However, VOs may be approached by ratepayers or their advisers about cases settled before the issuing of this guidance and where the VO is satisfied that the circumstances described above would have applied he should take action to correct the ‘current’ RV in the same way as for an outstanding case.
7.2 In cases of doubt advice should be sought from the relevant CVG Technical Adviser.
In respect of post 2005 lists:
Under regulation 14(2) of the Non-Domestic Rating (Alterations of Lists and Appeals) Regulations 2009 SI No 2268:
"(2) Subject to paragraphs (3) to (7), where an alteration is made to correct any inaccuracy in the list on or after the day it is compiled, the alteration shall have effect from the day on which the circumstances giving rise to the alteration first occurred."
Consequently, there is no restriction on the effective date of an address-only change and such an alteration may take effect from the appropriate day, up to and including compilation date.
9.1 The RSA procedure for Minor Changes to the Rating List is set out in the NDR Procedures Manual.
9.2 For the procedure to be followed for the renaming and/or renumbering of streets including the insertion of new streets refer to the guidance provided in the Address Creation Guide.