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Exempted and Empty property relief

Exempted property

Some property is exempt from paying business rates

You may not have to pay business rates on the following types of property:

  • Agricultural land and buildings. This includes fish farms
  • Buildings used for training or welfare of disabled people
  • Buildings registered for public religious worship or church halls

There are strict legal requirements in place for these exemptions to be able to qualify for the exemption

Empty property

You don't have to pay business rates on empty buildings for 3 months

After this time, most businesses must pay full business rates

Some businesses receive extended relief on empty properties:

  • Industrial premises like warehouses are exempt for a further 3 months
  • Buildings with a rateable value less than £2,900, until reoccupied
  • Listed buildings, until reoccupied
  • Property owned by a charity - this only applies if the properties next use will mostly be for charitable purposes
  • Community amateur sports club buildings - this only applies if the properties next use will be mostly as a sports club

Part occupied properties

A ratepayer is liable for the full non-domestic rate whether a property is wholly occupied or only partly occupied.

Where a property is partly occupied for a short time, we have discretion in certain cases to award relief in respect of the unoccupied part.

If you think this applies to your properties circumstances please get in touch using the contact details below.

How to apply

If you think you are eligible for any of the reliefs above please contact our business rates team

We may need to arrange a property inspection of so we are satisfied the property meets relief criteria

If you are liable for a property and it becomes empty please tell us as soon as possible

Further information

For further guidance please see the business rates relief section of GOV.UK