The VOA gives all business and non-domestic property in England and Wales a rateable value. Rateable value is a professional assessment of the annual rental value of a property on a specific date. Check your current rateable value

The VOA uses a wide range of property information and rental evidence, and studies the rental market in depth to ensure that valuations are accurate and consistent, reflecting the individual characteristics of each property.

For most properties, such as shops, offices, warehouses and other industrial property, evidence of actual rents being paid for similar properties in the area is used to assess rateable values.

For other types of property, such as pubs and other licensed premises, reference is often made to the business receipts being achieved to gauge the level of ‘fair maintainable trade’ that might be expected, using this as the basis for the assessment of rateable value.

For specialist property like courts, neither of these methods is appropriate, so building and land costs form the basis for the assessment of rateable value.

Our operational guidance is published as a rating manual. We also carry out our survey work in line with the industry standards and our code of measuring practice is published as a practice statement.