Review and appeal

How to appeal

Appeal your business rates bill or business rates relief

You should appeal your business rates within 29 days of receiving your bill.

Appeal your business rates in writing by sending your appeal to:

Director of Finance and Resources 
Renfrewshire House
Cotton Street 
Paisley 
PA1 1AD

In your appeal, you’ll need to tell us why the business rates we’re charging you are not correct.

Appeal the net value of your property

You should appeal the net value of your property within 6 months of:

• becoming the owner, tenant, or occupier
• the assessor changing the net value of your property.

Appeal the net value of your property in writing by sending your appeal to:

Renfrewshire Valuation Joint Board
Robertson Centre
16 Glasgow Road
Paisley
PA1 3QF

In your appeal, you’ll need to tell the assessor why the net value of your property is not correct.

After you appeal

You must continue to pay your current business rates bills while you're waiting for a response, which could take up to 2 months. If your appeal is successful and we change our decision, we'll adjust your future payments or give you a refund.

If you think your business rates bill is higher than it should be, you can appeal. This means we'll review your business rates and consider changing how much you need to pay.

You can appeal:

• your business rates bill
• your business rates relief
• the net value of your property.

Business rates relief is any discount we give you off your business rates bill. You’ll only receive relief if you’ve applied for it.

The net value of your property is the assessor’s estimate of how much annual rent your property could earn. Renfrewshire’s assessor is the Renfrewshire Valuation Joint Board. They must revalue all properties every 5 years. The most recent valuation applies from 1 April 2023.

Before you appeal, you should make sure you understand your current business rates.

To ask about your business rates, you can either:

• contact us online
• phone us on 0300 300 0202.

To ask about the net value of your property, contact the Renfrewshire Valuation Joint Board.

If you think we've made a wrong decision related to your council tax, you can appeal that decision. This means we'll review it again and consider changing our decision.

For example, you can appeal if:

• we’re charging you council tax and you do not think that you’re the person who should be liable to pay it
• you think you should be receiving a discount or you’re not receiving the correct amount of discount
• you think your property should be exempt from council tax.

Appealing your property’s banding

Do not appeal to us if you think your property’s council tax band is wrong.

Council tax bands (Scottish Assessors Association website) are determined by the assessor for the Renfrewshire Valuation Joint Board, not by the council.

If you think your property's council tax band is wrong, you'll need to 'make a proposal' to the Scottish Assessors Association to change your council tax band. Find out how to do this on the Renfrewshire Valuation Joint board website.

You'll need to tell us what decision you're appealing, why you think it is wrong, and what evidence you'd like us to review. You can appeal only because you think a decision is wrong, not because you think it is unfair. 

You or your representative must sign your appeal. The appeal must include:

• your name, your current address, and the date
• the address of your property (if different to your current address)
• the reference number and date of issue shown on your council tax bill
• your reasons for appealing and any evidence you’d like us to review that supports your appeal.

You must continue to pay your existing council tax bills while you're waiting for our response, which could take up to 2 months. If your appeal is successful and we change our decision, we'll adjust your account.

Appeal a council tax decision in writing by sending your appeal to:

If you’ve appealed a council tax decision and are not satisfied with our response, you can request an independent review from the Local Taxation Chamber.

You can only request an independent review from the Local Taxation Chamber if you've already appealed directly to us and received our response - or if it's been more than 2 months since you appealed and you've still not received our response.

To request an independent review, contact the Local Taxation Chamber by:

Learn more about how to request an independent review (Local Taxation Chamber's website).

If you think we've made a wrong decision about your Council Tax Reduction, you can ask us to review it again and consider changing our decision.

You must ask for a review within 2 months of our original decision.

You'll need to tell us what decision you'd like us to review and why you think our original decision was wrong.

You must still continue to pay your existing council tax bills while you're waiting for our response. If your request is successful and we change our decision, we'll adjust your future payments or give you a refund.

Fill out the online form

Send your request to:

We may ask you for more information so we know what you'd like us to review.

Once we have everything we need, we'll get back to you within 2 months with our decision.

What to do if you're not satisfied with our response

If you asked for a review of your Council Tax Reduction and are not satisfied with our response, you can request an independent review from the Local Taxation Chamber.

You can only ask for an independent review from the Local Taxation Chamber if you've already appealed directly to us and received our response - or if it's been more than 2 months since you appealed and you've still not received our response.

Ask for an independent ruling by emailing the Local Taxation Chamber at LTCAdmin@scotcourtstribunals.gov.uk or phoning them on 01698 390 012.

You can also ask for an independent ruling by sending your request to:

Local Taxation Chamber
Bothwell House, First Floor Hamilton Business Park, Caird Park
Hamilton ML3 0QA

Learn more about how to ask for an independent review (Local Taxation Chamber's website).

You can ask for a review from us if you disagree: 

• about your eligibility
• with the priority given to your application
• with the level of support given. 

Or you can ask us to review it again if you think we did not have enough information or evidence to make a decision when you applied for the grant.

This is called a first-tier review.

We cannot review the decision if we don't have enough budget, or there are other people who are in greater need of help.

If you're the person who applied for a Crisis Grant or Community Care Grant, you need to ask for the review of our decision.

If you have asked someone you know to help you, we'll check with you that you have consented for them to do this on your behalf.

If a professional, like an advisor or support worker, is helping you, they will let us know this when they ask for the review.

What you need to tell us

You'll need to tell us:

• why you want a review or why you think the decision was wrong
• the date of the original decision - you'll find this on the first decision letter we sent you
• any changes in your circumstances since the decision
• if the review is for you or you're asking for someone else. 

You need to do this within 20 working days of the original decision.

To ask for a review, email us at scottishwelfarefund@renfrewshire.gov.uk.

How we make a decision on your request

We'll look at:

• your application
• the evidence you gave us
• any new information that you have since you applied.

We'll then decide if we: 

• were right in our original decision
• if we should award the grant
• change the details of what we awarded. 

When you'll know what our decision is

We'll let you know the result of our review within: 

• two working days for a Crisis Grant
• 15 working days for a Community Care Grant.

If you are not satisfied with our decision you can ask the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) for an independent review. This is called a second-tier review.

The SPSO are independent of the Council and the Scottish Welfare Fund Independent Review service is free.

You must wait until you have received our decision before asking them for an independent review.

You need to do this within one month of receiving our decision. 

In some circumstances you can ask for a review after a month of receiving our decision. Contact the Scottish Welfare Fund Independent Review for advice.

You can ask us to review a decision on Housing Benefit if you do not agree with it.

You can only ask for a review if you:

• are the person who made the claim
• are representing the person making the claim, for example, a welfare rights officer, a support worker, a custodian of someone’s financial affairs (receiver) or a lawyer.

You can ask for a Statement of Reasons first, or if you want, ask for a Revision of Decision or an Appeal straight away.  

You should ask for a Statement of Reasons or a Revision of Decision within one month of the date you received our initial decision.

If you ask for a Statement of Reasons more than a month after our decision, we can still give you an explanation, but we may not be able to look into it further. 

If you are requesting a Revision of Decision more than one month after the decision was made, you must say why your request has been delayed.

Before you start, you’ll need to register for MyAccount through mygov.scot. If you’ve already registered, you do not need to do it again.

You can ask for a Statement of Reasons, a Revision or an Appeal online.

Ask for a review of a benefit decision

You can send your request in writing to:

Renfrewshire Council Benefits Service
Renfrewshire House
Cotton Street 
Paisley PA1 1AD

Your written request must:

• be signed by the person who has the right of appeal
• include the date the decision was made – you’ll find this on the original decision letter we sent you
• explain why you are appealing or why you think the decision was wrong - it is not enough to say you disagree with it.

If you ask for a Statement of Reasons 

We’ll write to you with more details about how we made our decision.

If you ask for a Revision of Decision

We’ll reconsider the original decision to see if it was correct. 

We’ll write to you afterwards to tell you if it was correct or if we have made another decision.

If we look at your claim again and don't change it, you have the right to appeal within one calendar month of receiving our response. 

If you ask for an Appeal

The Tribunal Service will send you a form to ask if you:

• still want to go ahead with the appeal
• want to attend
• a hearing in person, called an ‘oral hearing’, or prefer a paper hearing which you don’t need to attend
• need an interpreter or signer
• have any other outstanding appeals. 

You must respond within 14 days for your appeal to be considered.

Oral hearing appeals are held in Glasgow, and if you ask for one, you or someone representing you can attend it. 

A legally qualified person chairs the tribunal. They will write to you afterwards and let you know their decision. 

If your appeal is successful, your Housing Benefit claim will be reassessed in accordance with the judge’s decision at the tribunal.

How long it’ll take

We aim to respond to requests for a Statement of Reasons or a Revision of Decision within one month of receiving your request. 

As Appeals are heard by an independent tribunal service, we can’t advise how long it will take.