Do you pay Business Rates?
Date: 27th Jul 2021
Author: Andrew Rush
This information is only relevant if you pay Business Rates to LBB by Direct Debit
Hi everybody
Apparently, if you have been the beneficiary of the Business Rates moratorium and usually pay by Direct Debit, you will have or will shortly receive a threatening letter from LBB Business Rates Department, seeking immediate payment of the 2021/22 rates or otherwise they will take you to Court, where you will incur £170 in costs! You will of course have assumed that, when you received the initial demand in April, your DD would kick in.
It seems that a Direct Debit ceases to be valid if there is no activity on it for 12 consecutive months. The moratorium has been for 15 months, so nobody now has a valid DD for the payment of Rates in place!
Rather than go to the bother of informing all of the businesses on the register, LBB (Capita) decided it was easier to just send the threatening letter without planning for the hundreds of phone calls that would follow!
You need to find the letter or Invoice, pay one month’s instalment immediately and then after 3 working days call the office to ask for a DD arrangement.
We have drawn some Councillors’ attention to this ridiculous waste of time & money and abuse of the legal process.
Take care, keep safe and enjoy your summer break.
Kind regards
Clive