DUBLIN CITY RATEPAYERS must this week return of their completed revaluation form to the Valuation Office. The form was sent as part of a national programme to revalue all commercial property. The review began in South Dublin County Council and then in the Fingal and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown county council areas.

The revaluation of city properties marks a major step in the programme and, when complete, 25 per cent of properties will have been revalued, accounting for 50 per cent of the monetary value of the national valuation list. While the Valuation Office determines the valuations for rating purposes, the rating authorities decide the level of rates to be collected.

The type of information sought on the form includes details about occupiers and/or landlords and leases. The Valuation Office says that by completing the form ratepayers can ensure that the new valuation list will represent current market rental values and so be fair to all.

The Valuation Office will analyse the information provided, as well as other relevant information, to establish true and fair market rental values for each property as at April 7th 2011 – the date set for the Dublin city revaluation.

Ratepayers will be informed of proposed valuations in October 2012. This will be followed by engagement with ratepayers, called the representations phase, before the new list for the city is published in December 2013. The new valuations will come into effect on January 1st, 2014.

The Valuation Office says the purpose is to bring more “equity, fairness and transparency into the local authority system”. Property values have shifted significantly recently and a revaluation was necessary to ensure all ratepayers paid a fair share of the commercial rates by reference to the current rental values rather than historical rental values.

Once the revaluation is complete, individual rates may increase, fall or remain unchanged. But until all 25,000 commercial properties in the city have been revalued, it will not be possible to predict how each property will be affected. Although values have fallen heavily, not everyone will gain. It largely depends on how the rental value of a particular property changes relative to that of other properties. But in general the number of winners has exceeded the losers so far.