Isle of Wight surgery receives significant Notional Rent increase
GP Surveyors guided Esplanade Surgery through their first Notional Rent review and successfully secured a significant increase in their Notional Rent.
Janice George (Esplanade Surgery – Practice Manager) got in touch with GP Surveyors to enquiry about checking the practices Notional Rent figure and had a chat with one of our highly experienced Client Managers. The process of how our expert team checks whether a practices Notional Rent figure is fair in comparison with other surgeries in the locality and challenges the District Valuers (DVs) opinion if it is not, was explained. Having run through the initial consultation, Janice instructed GP Surveyors to begin Esplanade Surgery’s Notional Rent review.
A full premises inspection
One of our Senior Surveyors, Emma Pratt was then booked to visit the practice. Emma visited the surgery and carried out a full inspection, including measuring the property in full, drawing up a floorplan, photo-documenting the standard of the premises and confirming the use of all the floor space with the practice.
Checking the practices Notional Rent
On her return to the office, Emma compiled all the evidence from her inspection. To ascertain if the surgery had a case to challenge the DVs Notional Rent valuation she cross-checked the surgeries proposed Notional Rent figure against GP Surveyors vast database of comparable evidence. When comparing Esplanade Surgery with similar premises in the locality, Emma found there to be sufficient evidence to move forward with a challenge to the DVs initial opinion of the surgeries Notional Rent.
The case for an increase
Factors included:
- A low unit rate per square metre when compared with similar premises in the locality
- Inaccurate floor areas
The DV had excluded certain areas that were eligible for inclusion.
DV Negotiations
Once the DV received Emma’s valuation, negotiations began. Floorplans, measurements, and evidence was exchanged, however, the DV was unable to accept Emma’s valuation. The DV accepted that there had been an error in the floor measurements however could not accept an increase in the unit rate.
Emma Pratt – Senior Surveyor
“Practices on the Island tend to agree their figures or are not aware that they can check them with an independent specialist Surveyor. This may have played a party in the DVs negotiation stance and made the case more drawn out than the majority of our Notional Rent reviews.”
LDRP and NHS appeals
Feeling that the case and reasoning were strong, Esplanade Surgery agreed with GP Surveyors that the best course of action was to move the case to the Local Dispute Resolution Process (LDRP). Unfortunately, on this rare occasion, the LDRP process could not narrow the areas of dispute sufficiently for a resolution to be reached and GP Surveyors moved the case to NHS Appeals.
NHS Appeals appointed an independent advisor to consider the surgeries case and determine the practices Notional Rent figure. The independent advisor determined that the Notional Rent figure was not in line with current market rents and should be increased.
The result – patience paid off
Janice George – Practice Manager
“The case did take a long time to get resolved, but this was no fault of GP Surveyors and the decision to take the review to appeal paid off. GP Surveyors were successful in getting our rent properly reviewed with a significant increase to our annual rent, which was also backdated 3 years.”
The expert determination resulted in a fantastic increase of 27.5% above the DVs proposed Notional Rent valuation.
Janice George
“The level of service we received from all the GP Surveyors staff during our Notional Rent review was very good and everyone was very helpful. We are very grateful to the team and we would definitely recommend GP Surveyors to other practices.”
We hope you have found GP Surveyors, Isle of Wight Notional Rent Review case useful, see our full range of Notional Rent case studies here.
Review your practices Notional Rent
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