Project summary
- Fisher German (FG), previously known as Matthews and Goodman, has been appointed as the rating advisor for Flintshire County Council since the 2005 Rating List with a remit covering their entire property portfolio. This includes their operational offices and town halls, libraries, car parks, cemeteries, waste recycling centres, leisure centres and schools.
- The school's element provides the largest sector, in the 2017 List FG was instructed to review the entire school portfolio, numbering approximately 75, and pursue appeals on all relevant properties.
Solution
- FG reviewed the contractor’s test valuations on which the schools' assessments are based and pursued appeals against the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) where they had made factual and valuation errors in arriving at the existing Rateable Value (RV).
- The VOA valuations applied an agreed industry build cost to the various elements of the school with adjustments for depreciation and obsolescence to allow for the age of the subject property. This amount was then adjusted for location with further set percentage additions applied for external landscaping, contract size, professional fees and developed land value. After any further additions for playing fields the end figure was then decapitalised at a statutory rate to provide the Rateable Value.
- FG’s appeals considered the various parts of the valuation process including age of buildings, allowances for flat roofs, extent of external landscaping as well as general calculation errors.
- The team also successfully pursued appeals against several existing assessments, where FG proved that the school had either become obsolete or demolished as a result of closure through reduced pupil numbers or the building of a new school in the vicinity, achieving either a reduction to a nominal value or deletion of the assessment respectively.
Benefits
- Following negotiations with the Valuation Officer, FG achieved reductions on a total of 56 schools (both primary and secondary) totalling approximately £250,000 and has resulted in a total saving in rates liability to the Council of approximately £550,000.
