# BUSINESS RATES APPEAL INSTRUCTION
Date: 9 September 2029
Parties: Cedar Rating Consultants Limited and Harbourlight Retail Limited
## 1. Parties and purpose
Harbourlight Retail Limited (Company No. 07551229), occupier of Unit 3, 44 King Street, York YO1 8QR, instructs Cedar Rating Consultants Limited (Company No. 06441128), 6 Stonegate, York YO1 8AS, to review its non-domestic rating assessment. Cedar's work concerns the 2026 rating list and does not itself suspend Harbourlight's duty to pay the billing authority.
## 2. Scope, price and subject
Cedar will inspect the 620-square-metre shop, review the rateable-value entry and lease, compare relevant evidence, prepare a Check submission and, if justified, a Challenge to the Valuation Office Agency. A later appeal to the Valuation Tribunal for England requires separate written approval. The fixed review fee is £1,800 plus VAT and the appeal fee is £2,500 plus VAT if instructed.
## 3. Operating duties
Harbourlight must provide the lease, floor plans, rent evidence, fit-out history, trade information and rates bills, confirm facts accurately and attend an inspection. Cedar may contact the VOA and billing authority as Harbourlight's agent but cannot settle, withdraw or accept an alteration without written authority. A successful reduction is not guaranteed and the VOA may increase an assessment following a lawful review.
## 4. Compliance, records and controls
Cedar will apply reasonable professional skill, explain material assumptions and give Harbourlight copies of submissions and VOA correspondence. It will not create evidence, conceal rent, misstate trade or advise Harbourlight to disregard a demand. Harbourlight remains responsible for payment dates, relief applications, change-of-circumstance notifications and preserving original records.
## 5. Term, ending and remedies
Cedar processes business contact and property information securely and uses it only for the instruction, subject to UK GDPR and lawful disclosure to the VOA, Tribunal, insurers or professional advisers. Harbourlight authorises Cedar to hold the file for six years after conclusion and to retain legally required evidence. Conflicts must be disclosed and Cedar may cease acting if independence is compromised.
## 6. Liability and reservations
Either party may end the instruction on 14 days' notice; Cedar may stop work for non-payment or missing evidence after warning. Fees for work performed and non-refundable Tribunal costs remain payable. If Cedar's negligence causes a material filing error, it will promptly notify Harbourlight and take reasonable corrective steps; liability is otherwise capped at fees paid, excluding fraud and death or personal injury.
## 7. Governing law and signatures
The parties understand that Check, Challenge and Tribunal deadlines are statutory and must be verified against current VOA and Tribunal guidance. England and Wales law governs, subject to the Tribunal's statutory jurisdiction. Cedar's surveyor Alice Morton and Harbourlight's director Yusuf Khan sign on 9 September 2029; this is an instruction, not a promise of a rates outcome.