When the Wheels Stopped Turning

Original 2005 Rateable Value – £130,000
Agreed 2005 Rateable Value – £100,000

Award winning P&H Motorcycles are based on the busy Gatwick Road in Crawley, W Sussex. Since its establishment in 1980, the proprietor, Paul Searle, has consistently invested in the business and P&H Motorcycles can now boast a clothing department and training school in addition to its huge fleet of gleaming motorbikes and scooters. It has a soaring reputation leading to motorcycle enthusiasts from all over the South East visiting in order to buy, gain advice, or simply view the goods.

It was not always such smooth running for P&H, however.
In May 2004 the Gatwick Road underwent enormous disruption as the long process to become a “Fastway” route for Gatwick’s new guided bus service began. This signalled the start of the largest road improvement scheme since the establishment of Crawley as a New Town.

Traffic in the Gatwick Road ground to a virtual halt resulting in drivers avoiding the area completely if at all possible. The upheaval was taking place right outside the P&H Motorcycles showroom and so it was natural that this would have a significant impact on the business. Sales dropped by 7%, but this figure was compounded further by the fact Paul Searle had recently completed a £650,000 investment in the business. Whereas sales should have climbed a predicted 30% following this investment, they tumbled in the wake of the road works.

Roderick Bisset, Director of BMH commented: “We approached P&H Motorcycles in Crawley as a test case, because we knew that their business would be severely affected by these road works. With our proposal to P&H being on a “no win – no fee” basis, they literally had nothing to lose”.

Using his considerable expertise and experience in specialist rating assessments, Roderick Bisset challenged the rating valuation in two key areas. Firstly he contested that the impact of the road works had been under-estimated, and secondly challenged the categorisation of the business as a car showroom.

Continued Bisset, “At what point does an industrial building selling motorcycles become a car showroom? We compared P&H to Gatwick car showrooms and the Valuation Office came back to us with a proposed reduction from £116,000 RV to £101,000 RV. Not all reductions are acceptable – we re-opened the negotiations and eventually persuaded the Valuation Officer to agree a further reduction to £75,500 RV.
In summary, we saved P&H Motorcycles £37,500 on a no win – no fee basis”.

Bisset continued to represent P&H Motorcycles in 2005, and again managed to negotiate a revalidation of the assessment from £130,000 to £100,000 RV – no mean feat!

“I never cease to get a buzz when we achieve these results for our clients”, says Bisset “With our local knowledge, coupled with experience in these types of appeals, we are able to achieve results that our client initially never thought were possible”.

Epilogue: When the Client gets the last word
“The Gatwick Road disruption was a major inconvenience for us. It went on for 18 months and at one point a key part of the road was closed so customers coming to us from the M25 and M23 had a nightmare journey. Then due to contractor vehicles there was no parking when they eventually reached us”, says Paul Searle, before concluding. “In the past I’ve used various companies to assess our rating and it’s been a nightmare. Rod did a fantastic job for us. All the time, I felt confident he would do his best for us. It was a slow process but he kept reassuring us. Rod was tenacious where others would give up. So he got a better deal for us. The savings we have made from the road and the re-rating are so significant, they will benefit us into the future”.