Checked against the rating list and the rules in force as at 2026-08-23.
Up to six years. Small business rate relief is a mandatory relief rather than something your council decides to grant, and since 2012 there has been no application deadline. Where you qualified and never received it, what limits you is the six-year period under section 9 of the Limitation Act 1980, applying to any period from 1 April 2012 onwards. The condition is that you met the qualifying tests throughout the period you are claiming for.
Because it used to be true. Until 2012 there was a statutory deadline for claiming in a given year, and missing it meant losing that year.
That deadline was abolished. Since then the relief has been claimable for past periods without a filing cut-off, and what limits you is the general six-year limitation period.
A lot of advice still in circulation predates that change, and some of it is on council websites. If someone tells you one year, ask which rule they are applying.
Whether you qualified throughout. The six years is a ceiling. If you occupied a second property for part of the period, or your rateable value moved above the threshold, those years drop out.
When your entitlement started. Usually the date you took occupation, which is why this comes up most often at a change of occupier.
Whether it can be evidenced. Occupation dates, and which properties you held in each year.
A claim covering several years is frequently worth several times the current year alone.
Backdating a relief and backdating a change to your rateable value are two different things, on two different timetables, decided by two different bodies. The relief is your council. The rateable value is the Valuation Office. Most of the confusion in this area comes from mixing them up.
Check first whether the relief is already on your bill. A large proportion of bills in the band already carry it, and the bill is the only place that shows.
If it’s genuinely missing, the claim is a form on your council website and it costs nothing to submit. Putting a backdated claim together is the part we do.
If you’d rather not deal with it, hand it over on the same 10% success fee. What that fee covers, and for which period, is set out in the letter of engagement before you sign anything.
Every retail and hospitality premises in London has been checked against the official rating list. Enter your address to see yours. No sign-up, no phone number.
Public data only. We do not ask for your rates bill, and there is nothing to upload.
If there's nothing to save, we say so.
Send a photo of your rates bill and we’ll tell you the same day whether there is anything to recover. WhatsApp 07594 933857.
Sources: Small Business Rate Relief (GOV.UK) · Apply for business rates relief (GOV.UK)
Each borough page carries the spread of rateable values and the value per square metre, by type of premises. It also ranks the most expensive streets in the borough. Those aggregations are ours.
We checked 109,537 London retail and hospitality premises against the 2026 rating list — seeing your street’s figures is free, no sign-up.