A business rate payer is responsible for full business rates whether a property is fully occupied or only partly occupied.
Section 44A of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 is a temporary discretionary relief which may be awarded to ratepayers who are only using part of their premises and the unoccupied area is completely unused.
This relief can only be awarded for a maximum of three months, or six months in the case of industrial properties.
If you apply for this relief, we will normally ask you to provide a plan of the property showing the empty areas and we will need to visit the property from time to time to confirm it is empty.
Once the application is accepted we will request a certificate from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) which shows the rateable value for the empty and occupied portions. We will then recalculate your bill according to the certificate.
When a property is vacated or occupied in stages we will need to visit each time the empty part changes and we will ask VOA to provide a new certificate each time.
To apply for partly occupied property relief, please email brates@woking.gov.uk