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Empty property relief

If you get empty property relief, you do not have to pay business rates on your empty property for 3 months. The relief starts from when the property becomes empty. After this time, most businesses must pay full business rates.

Initial relief

When a property becomes vacant, you usually get 3 months (or 6 months for industrial/warehouses) of 100% relief from business rates.

The reset

After this initial period (or any subsequent relief period), the property must be occupied for a minimum of 13 continuous weeks before you can claim another period of empty relief.

Extended empty property relief

The following properties can get extended empty property relief:

  • Industrial premises (for example warehouses) are exempt for a further 3 months
  • Listed buildings - until they're reoccupied
  • Buildings with a rateable value under £2,900 - until they're reoccupied
  • Properties owned by charities - only if the property's next use will be mostly for charitable purposes
  • Community amateur sports clubs buildings - only if the next use will be mostly as a sports club

Apply

Apply for empty rate relief

If your property is being repaired or refurbished

You need to tell the VOA if the building cannot be used because it's being repaired or refurbished. Use your business rates valuation account to do this.

The VOA will assess the property and the work that's being done on it. If the VOA decides the repairs or improvements mean that the property cannot be used, you will not have to pay business rates until the building can be used again.