DRAFT for solicitor review. Not yet in force. Version rates-2026-10.
These terms apply when you ask Stillrate to act for you on business rates. Stillrate is a trading name of Med Services Ltd, company number 14915054, registered office 52a Cherwell Street, Oxford, OX4 1BG ("we", "us"). "You" means the business named in your account.
1. What we will do
1.1 Review the information you give us and the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) holds about your property.
1.2 Where we believe there is a reasonable case, prepare and submit a Check and, if appropriate, a Challenge to the VOA for the 2026 rating list. A qualified rating surveyor (named in your case proposal, before you agree to it) will review and sign off every submission before it is made.
1.3 Appeal to the Valuation Tribunal only if you agree in writing (in your account is enough).
1.4 Keep you updated in your account, including all dates and deadlines we are tracking.
2. What we will not do
2.1 We do not guarantee any outcome. The VOA and the Valuation Tribunal decide, and many challenges do not succeed.
2.2 We do not give legal, tax or accounting advice, and we do not deal with your council's billing, payment plans or enforcement.
2.3 We will not make a submission we believe to be inaccurate or without reasonable grounds.
3. What you agree to do
3.1 Appoint us as your agent in your business rates valuation account and keep the appointment in place while we act.
3.2 Give us accurate and complete information, and tell us promptly about changes to your property, occupation or trade. You confirm the information you provide is true to the best of your knowledge. Providing false information to the VOA can be an offence.
3.3 Respond to our requests by the date we give you. We set our dates ahead of the VOA's deadlines so there is time to prepare. If you reply after our date, we will try to meet the VOA deadline but cannot promise to.
3.4 Keep paying your rates as billed while a case is under way. Any refund is made by your council.
3.5 Exclusive appointment. When you accept these terms you appoint us exclusively to seek a reduction in the rateable value of the property on the 2026 rating list. We record the date and time you accepted, the name you typed and the account you used, keep a copy of these terms exactly as you accepted them, and email you a confirmation. While this agreement is in force you must not appoint another agent, or make a Check, Challenge or appeal yourself or through anyone else, for the same property and list.
3.6 You confirm that, when you accept these terms, no other agent is appointed for the property on the 2026 list and no Check, Challenge or appeal is under way for it, other than any you have told us about in writing.
3.7 If the rateable value of the property is reduced for the 2026 list as a result of any Check, Challenge, appeal or other proposal made on or after the date you accepted these terms, our fee under section 4 is payable, whoever made it and whoever else claims the credit. Any fee another adviser asks you for is a matter between you and them, and does not reduce ours.
4. Our fee
4.1 Our fee is 15% of the Saving, capped at £20,000 per property, plus VAT if applicable.
4.2 "Saving" means the reduction in the business rates payable for the property over the remaining life of the 2026 rating list, resulting from a change to the rateable value secured while we act for you. We calculate it from the rateable value before and after the change, the multipliers and the reliefs that apply. If your revised bills show a different reduction, we use the revised bills.
4.3 If there is no Saving, there is no fee. There are no upfront or administration charges.
4.4 We invoice when your council issues its revised bill following the decision of the VOA (or the Tribunal). Please send us a copy as soon as you receive it. If we have not received the revised bill within 60 days of the decision, we may invoice on the basis of the decision, and adjust the fee later if the revised bill shows a different Saving. Invoices are payable within 30 days, by Direct Debit or bank transfer.
4.5 If you end this agreement after we have submitted a Challenge and the rateable value is later reduced as a result of our work, the fee is still payable.
5. Ending this agreement
5.1 You can end this agreement at any time before we submit a Challenge, at no cost, by telling us in your account.
5.2 We can end this agreement if we no longer believe there is a reasonable case, if you do not provide information we need, or if you breach these terms. We will tell you why.
6. Our responsibility to you
6.1 We will carry out our work with reasonable skill and care.
6.2 We are not responsible for any loss caused by: (a) information you give us that is wrong or incomplete; (b) you not responding by the dates we give you; (c) the decisions of the VOA, the Valuation Tribunal or your council; or (d) events outside our reasonable control.
6.3 We are not liable for loss of profit, loss of business, or any indirect or consequential loss.
6.4 Our total liability to you for all claims connected with these terms is limited to the fees paid or payable to us for the property concerned.
6.5 Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot legally be limited, including for fraud or for death or personal injury caused by negligence.
7. Your information
We handle your information as set out in our privacy notice. Our surveyors and service providers only use it to deliver this service.
8. Complaints
Tell us in your account or at hello@stillrate.co.uk. Our complaints procedure explains what happens next.
9. General
9.1 These terms, with any fee or scope confirmed in your account, are the whole agreement between us about business rates.
9.2 We may update these terms. Changes do not affect cases where you have already accepted terms, unless you agree.
9.3 These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction.