Hundreds of rural business owners are expected to make representations at Valuation Office clinics across three Midland counties on Monday amid fears of a sharp increase in commercial rates.
Valuation Office staff will be on hand at local authority offices in Roscommon, Westmeath and Longford where the recent issuing of commercial valuation certificates has prompted protest meetings.
Similar walk-in clinics are to be in operation in Leitrim next week.
Efforts to update commercial valuations in rural Ireland have caused anger and anxiety among many business owners.
On January 12th, the Valuations Office – the State’s property valuation agency – issued 6,300 valuation certs to businesses in Longford, Roscommon and Westmeath. A further 1,100 certs were issued in Co Leitrim on January 19th.
The proposed valuations are used to calculate commercial rates for 2018 using a multiple set by each local authority.
Although businesses are being invited to make representations and an appeal system is in place, this first attempt to revaluate commercial properties in 150 years is being viewed by some as an attack on rural business.
Longford-Westmeath Labour TD Willie Penrose said “three or fourfold increases” were common.
He raised the issue in the Dáil, and attended a meeting for businesses in Mullingar, Co Westmeath, last Monday.
Mr Penrose said if the Government was serious about protecting and encouraging businesses in rural Ireland it should look at the possibility of not imposing rates for three or four years.
Local businesses
Derek Scanlon, president of the Longford Chamber of Commerce, which also held a meeting on the issue with local businesses last Monday, said it did a survey of members “and 44 per cent were facing an increase”.
He said in one business owner’s case the proposed valuation meant an increase in annual rates from €30,000 to €60,000 a year, the equivalent of a job or potentially keeping the business open.
Publican Andy Byrne said he was shocked to discover he faced a four-fold increase in rates following the revaluation.
The man who has run Andy Byrne’s bar in Longford Town for two years cannot understand how the valuations were arrived at.
To illustrate his point, he named three businesses within 100m of one another on his street.
“One doubled, mine quadrupled and the girl’s [business] on the other side went down. I can’t make head nor tail of it.”
Had he been aware of the potential increase in rates Mr Byrne said it would have influenced the negotiation of the five-year lease for his bar.
Although the rate rise would not put him out of business, it would limit his ability to hire part-time staff.
“My big concern here is this: it isn’t about my own business, it’s about the town in general. It is going to put people out of business.”
Seamus Butler of Longford’s Butler Manufacturing said he had sought a new valuation certificate for his business for the past eight years.
The Fianna Fáil councillor said his new valuation indicated that the company was overvalued by 42 per cent.
Despite this, “we will have to pay the high rates till the end of this year”.
He said the excess rate payments could have been used for staff, research and development, stock or other business purposes.
Rental information
Valuation Office spokesman Patrick McCarthy said the figure issued in the valuation document was not an estimated rate bill but the valuation of the property.
In the case of the latest counties, this was worked out using rental information from October 2015.
He said revaluation began nationally in 2005, and had taken place in Dublin, Limerick and Waterford.
He said the changes would not increase overall commercial rate income for local authorities.
It would instead bring more “equity and transparency” into the local authority rating system.
Unhappy business owners can make representations to the Valuation Office within 40 days from the date of issue of the proposed certificate.
There is a right of appeal to the Valuation Tribunal, and ultimately to the High Court.