The Supreme Court has allowed the Valuation Office Agency the right of appeal against last year’s defeat in the Court of Appeal over the business rates chargeable for cash machines.
Last year, Room151 reported that councils face an estimated combined bill of up to £500m to refund supermarkets after the Court of Appeal ruled that ATMs should not be assessed separately for business rates.
Property agency Colliers International said that because timescale for the final decision may go beyond the 2021 rating list, supermarkets, ATM operators and other vending operators will need to lodge checks and challenges through the new “Check Challenge Appeal” (CCA) system to protect their position on the 2017 rating list.
John Webber, head of business rates at Colliers, said: “This will lead to the panic to submit tens of thousands of appeals to CCA, the Government’s appeal system, immediately, adding further to the burden on a massively overstretched and under resourced system, already struggling to cope with the appeals it is dealing with at the moment.”
