An exasperated landlord has issued a warning to business owners over the valuation of their business rates.

Dave Savory runs The Style and Winch pub in Union Street, Maidstone.

Five years ago he received an invitation from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), part of HM Revenue and Customs, to fill in a questionnaire with details about his business and property so that they could properly assess it for business rate.

But when his valuation arrived it was far higher than he expected.

He said: "Then began a lengthy campaign of to-ing and fro-ing with my being passed from pillar to post.

"The explanation for the high valuation was, they said, that they had never received my completed questionnaire, so they had made their own assessment of my liability."

Eventually, he was able to to persuade the VOA to give him a £31,000 rebate – still far less than he feels he was owed.

He said: "It took four years! And of course I had had to pay the higher valuation in the meantime."

Now that a new invitation to complete an assessment form has arrived on his doorstep – for a re-evaluation – he has discovered the cause of all his trouble.

He said: "The form says 'return to Durham' but the pre-paid return envelope they send with it is to an address in Hailfax!

"They are sending out the wrong envelope. No wonder my return went astray!"

He added: "I urge everyone who receives a valuation sheet to cross check the addresses carefully if they don't want to go through the hell I went through."

A spokesman for the Valuation Office Agency said: "We are in the process of centralising our hard copy post so it will all be dealt with by our customer service centre in Durham, hence the address on the form.

"It appears an error has been made with the address on the envelope on this occasion.

"However, we do have a forwarding service in place so post sent to any of our offices is sent on to Durham regardless of which office it is addressed to."

The spokesman added: "I cannot comment as to Mr Savory’s form not being received five years ago but this mix up with addresses will not have been the cause of it."

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