A Valuation Order, which sets in train the process for the revaluation of all commercial and industrial property in Laois County Council rating authority area, was signed on Friday the 22nd December 2017 by John O’Sullivan, Commissioner of Valuation.
The revaluation will affect approximately 2,000 commercial and industrial ratepayers in Laois. This revaluation is being done using elements of self-assessment known as “Occupier Assisted Valuation”, which is the first time that this approach has been undertaken for a revaluation of businesses in Ireland.
The signing of the new Valuation Order follows the completion of a statutory consultation process between the Commissioner of Valuation, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government and Laois County Council.
The revaluation is part of a national programme to modernise the rateable valuation of all commercial and industrial property in Ireland. The programme has already been completed in the Carlow, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal, Kildare, Kilkenny, Leitrim, Longford, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo, South Dublin and Westmeath County Councils and in Dublin City Council, Waterford City and County Council and Limerick City and County Council rating authority areas. Revaluation began in October 2017 for rateable properties in Cavan, Louth, Meath, Monaghan, Tipperary, Wexford and Wicklow County Councils.
The purpose of revaluation is to bring increased transparency and more equity and uniformity to the local authority rating system. Following revaluation, there is a much closer and uniform relationship between current annual rental values of commercial properties and their commercial rates liability.
Neither residential property nor agricultural lands are rateable and consequently are not affected by the revaluation.
The new valuations for Laois will be published in October 2018 and become effective for rates purposes from January 2019 onwards.
Each occupier of a commercial or industrial property in Laois will receive a notice requiring them to submit their valuation in the coming weeks. The notice will explain in detail how the Occupier Assisted Valuation process will work and what is required of ratepayers. A number of additional supports, including instructional videos, will be made available to ratepayers on the Valuation Office at www.valoff.ie.