A planned rates re-evaluation for businesses across Clare is to be deferred until next year.
The Valuation Office is to delay looking at the value of properties in seven local authorities, including Clare County Council’s jurisdiction, following measures signed off on by Minister for Local Government Darragh O Brien.
Every commercial and industrial property in the county is now be examined in 2023 in order to see if the occupiers are paying a fair rate to the council.
Declan Lavelle, Head of Valuation Services in the Valuation Office, says the decision was based on both the pandemic and the current state of the property market.
Statement from Clare County Council
‘The Valuation of commercial properties is an independent process outside of the Local Authority carried out by the central National Valuation Office. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage has agreed with the Commissioner of Valuation that the Commissioner will defer the revaluation of rateable properties in the following local authority areas until 2023: Clare County Council, Donegal County Council, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, Galway City Council, Galway County Council, Kerry County Council and Mayo County Council. New valuations arising from the revaluation of these local authorities will now be finalised in October 2023 and become effective for rates purposes from 2024 onwards. The deferral of revaluations is to allow for the impact of COVID-19 on the commercial property market to be assessed and reflected in the revaluation of these seven local authority areas.
The Valuation Office will be writing to individual ratepayers in Clare County Council, shortly to notify them of the changed timelines and will also notify the trade bodies which represent businesses in these areas.
Clare County Council would urge our commercial rates customers to engage with the Valuation Office as this deferral presents an opportunity for them to have the impact of COVID-19 on the commercial property market to be assessed and reflected in the revaluation.
Ratepayers in any of the local authority areas concerned can contact the Valuation Office by emailing [email protected]’
