Check, Challenge, Appeal for hospitality venues
Three stages, all free to start yourself. Here's what each one actually involves.
The Valuation Office runs a three-stage process for disputing a rateable value in England (Wales uses a similar Check and Challenge route to the Valuation Tribunal for Wales):
- Check — confirm the facts the Valuation Office holds about your property (floor areas, trading position, whether it's licensed, and so on) are correct. Free, and the stage most operators skip when they shouldn't.
- Challenge — put forward a case for why the valuation itself is wrong, with evidence. This needs a proper valuation argument, not just "it feels too high" — see what evidence a challenge needs.
- Appeal — if Challenge doesn't resolve things, appeal to the Valuation Tribunal for England, an independent body.
England recorded 13,710 checks against the 2026 rating list by 30 June 2026, against 127,880 checks in January-March 2026 as ratepayers rushed to close out the old 2023 list (HMRC official statistics, 'Non-domestic rating: challenges and changes', June 2026). One web summary has claimed the Check stage was scrapped for 2026 — it wasn't; GOV.UK's July 2026 guidance and the volume of checks already registered both confirm it's still live.
We're a bar owner's information site, not a surveyor. If you send this form, we may pass your details to a RICS-regulated rating firm we work with, who will contact you. They would pay us if you instruct them. You can check your valuation yourself free on the Valuation Office's service. No one can guarantee a reduction.