PRAMERICA - A Grand Result, or Two!
CLIENT BRIEFOur client, based in Grand Buildings, Trafalgar Square, engaged the services of ask-re to advise on the best way to mitigate their business rates liability for their offices after…
CLIENT BRIEFOur client, based in Grand Buildings, Trafalgar Square, engaged the services of ask-re to advise on the best way to mitigate their business rates liability for their offices after relocating from Savile Row, Mayfair where we had successfully cut their rates costs. The property compromises approximately 20,000sq ft of office accommodation.
OUR PROFESSIONAL APPROACHThe work undertaken by ask-re involved auditing and examining lease rents, service charges and the Rates bills from previous years, which included other floors within the building, not occupied by Pramerica. This enabled us to identify technical aspects ensuring our client paid the minimum amount of business rates going forward. We also compared our hereditament with others that were similar in the same locality or ‘tax scheme’ and found that our client’s assessment could be reduced. At the time Pramerica entered into their new lease, the economic downturn of 2009-2010 had begun a huge effect on rents and we saw an opportunity to achieve a significant reduction through a forensic appraisal of all the evidence around the reference date.
Right in the middle of it all, the Landlord decided to remodel the common parts and entrances, which further confused a complicated appeal situation and caused considerable disturbance to our client’s occupation which continued whilst builders knocked seven bells out of the interior for about a year.
This further delayed negotiation and eventual settlement of our appeals on behalf of Pramerica.
THE SUCCESS STORYDespite other advisers not agreeing with us and indeed pulling out their appeals on other floors of Grand Buildings we stuck to our guns and over a ridiculously-slow timetable of 5 years, eventually achieved a 2-stage settlement, just at the point of actually going ahead with a full-scale Valuation Tribunal hearing against the Valuation Office.
Overall we have saved the client more than £400,000 over the 5 year period of the Rating List, with further savings to come in 2016 and 2017, a very successful outcome.