Register your interest in Serviced Accommodation Discovery Day here, and a member of our team will get back to you to confirm your place at your preferred date.

 

 

Welcome back to The Serviced Accommodation Podcast. Today, Kevin shares with you a Live recording of independent rating surveyor, Mike Powell’s presentation on how rates affect and impact on Serviced Accommodation. Hear the expert knowledge on rateable values and how you can achieve the highest rates of relief when starting, growing and scaling your Serviced Accommodation business. Mike uses examples to help explain the pros, cons and intricacies of the VOA (Valuation Office Agency), local councils and how you can calculate your liability when running your business.

Stay tuned until the end to hear the Q&A session with questions from Serviced Accommodation investors from around the UK.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The VOA (Valuation Office Agency) is an agency of HMRC and they are responsible for setting council tax and business rates. They’ve got a statutory duty to maintain a fair rating list. Business rates produce £26m per annum for the treasury.
• You have a rateable value for any given property, no matter what the type of property. But this is not what you pay. You pay according to the uniform business rate (UBR) which is set every year and is linked to inflation and for small businesses, this year it’s 48p in the pound. For larger businesses, it’s £49.3 in the pound.  
• Serviced Accommodation is a commercial use and therefore should be officially business rated and the rating is down to how a property is being used. For example, your property being used commercially as a serviced accommodation unit.  Some local authorities are trawling through sites like booking.com and Airbnb and looking to see how properties are being used and reporting them to the VOA.
• The VOA is set up in regions and they all value differently, however, most will consider it self-contained accommodation. Putting a price on each individual bed space, so if you have a two bedroomed, doubled bed apartment, that’s classed as four-bed space and if it’s £1000 per bed space that has a rating value of £4000.  
• To calculate your business rates bill, you have your rateable value and you times that by the uniform business rate, so £48p in the pound for small businesses.

BEST MOMENTS

“I’ve seen the price of single bed space range from £360 to £6000 in some areas of London, so there’s massive variation.”

“The rating list is revalued every five years with the next one scheduled for 2020.”

“I don’t think that the VOA is valuing Serviced Accommodation units correctly.”

ABOUT THE HOST

Your host Kevin Poneskis enjoys public speaking, travelling, exercising and keeping fit. He also enjoys working with a charity called STOLL which provides accommodation and training for homeless veterans.

Kevin was in the British Army serving 24 years, mostly in a Commando unit and retired at the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major. He left the Army in 2011 and became a full-time property investor. During most of my Army career, Kevin was investing in property and has been a property investor now for over 27 years.

CONTACT METHOD

Facebook – Property soldier

Email – [email protected]

ABOUT THE GUEST

Mike Powell has property in his blood having been surrounded by property advice since birth with his parents in estate agency, commercial property advice and particularly business rating as he grew up. He is a self-confessed petrol head with a growing interest in modern and future Classics. Mike started his career as a commercial property agent in south Yorkshire selling and letting local and regional retail, industrial and office buildings and brokering investment and development deals. When the market crashed in 2008 Mike got involved in the business rating side of the business and found his niche and has worked on thousands of properties and rating assessments nationally since.

CONTACT METHOD

You can contact Mike Powell on:

Facebook – Michael Powell

Email – [email protected]