01204388189

The appointed receivers are daly and co of enterprise house Worksop.this is the same adress as the current registered and trading office of duncan regent.if you still get pestered please let me know as there are a number of retailers who would like to speak to duncan regent or their receivers.there seems to be some kind of link between some very dodgy rating surveyors.if I were the receivers who maybe reading this message I would say don't push your luck.

If anybody who has posted on this website and who feels that they have been let down by this company could you please contact me.unfortunately I am primarily interested in those people who have premises in yorkshire as the local newspaper is interested in this matter.

SCAM!!! this is a personal experience... read on!
they called and promised high chance of Business Rate refund due to over-paid for the past couple of years, then they charged me £3xx for the service. They did put the case through and appealed to Valuation Office Association, got a few letters from VOA regarding the appeal.
Couple of months on, I received a letter from Duncan Regent which says the appeal was unsuccessful and they tried their best etc, followed by a phone call from VOA officer saying it was actually Duncan Regent withdrawn the appeal, the officer also told me from the beginning, Duncan Regent probably knows the appeal will be unsuccessful, however, in order to get money out of businesses, they would still  put the case through etc... so its a total SCAM!!! waste of time and money!! lesson learnt

An article appeared in the Sunday telegraph yesterday in the business section.it mentioned about how many spurious appeals are being submitted to the vo without any chance of success.if anybody on this site feels they have been scammed and can back it up please send an email to graham.ruddick@telegraph.co.uk.any other problems let me know.

they told me they will guarantee me reduction other wise they will give me refund for all fees paid. i paid them 600 pounds and they have not got rate reduction. I am out of pocket for 600 pounds. now they are refusing to give me refund

Inform them that you will be taking them to the Small Claims Court unless they refund your money within 14 days.

You must take some action as nan has said.if not they will carry on

LATEST SCAM ........???????    

https://www.facebook.com/UtilityBillHelpline#!/photo.php?

HERE IT IS AGAIN!!!!!!  MMMMMMMMM

http://utilitybillhelpline.co.uk/

http://utilitybillhelpline.co.uk/business-rates.php

NOW THERES THE ICING ON THE CAKE!!!!

THE  DIRECTOR OF THIS SCAM THATS NOW BEEN LIQUIDATED AND THE NEW SCAM THAT REPRESENTS PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN RIPPED OFF BY 'DODGY' BUSINESS RATES ARE BOTH REGISTERED AT THE SAME ADRESS!!! AND WITH THE SAME SURNAMES!!!

IVE WATCHED THESE POSTS WITH GREAT INTEREST OVER THE LAST FEW MONTHS AS MY WIFE WAS DONE BY THESE CROOKS LAST YEAR AND WAS TREATED LIKE AN 'ANIMAL',  WITH MANY LETTERS AND EMAILS SENT TO THEM TO TRY AND  RESOLVE HER ISSUES, THEY NEVER ONCE HAD ANY DECENY TO WRITE BACK APART FROM TO TELL HER THAT THE CONTRACT SHE WAS MISLEAD INTO STOOD......

AMAZING WHAT YOU CAN FIND OUT ON THE INTERNET!

SO LETS SEE YOU TALK YOURSELVES OUT OF THIS ONE!!!!!    

PARASITES!

Ed what are you going to do now.you must report this to trading standards and the media.if not they will carry on and keep scamming.there have many complaints regarding various companies ie hammer properties sj associates idc rates consultants leighton clarke but after complaining nobody seems to do anything.you all have to join forces and prevent this happening again and again.

The reason I called my self Mupet, is because that's the way the company maid me feel, all I want to say is I think you will find that as yet not one person has been taken to court, this is the third year for me,and have I been taken to court nooooooooooo, please you people that have not paid out any money to this company don't loose sleep over them, have a Happy New Year, But the ones that have paid money well that  is not fair, phone your Rates office speak to them regarding the company find out if any work was carried out on behalf of you, ask there advice.

The comments made by Messrs Hammer Properties are interesting.
Firstly the terms and conditions
"Our charges for the complete service total £500 plus VAT with only a £75 deposit to formulate and lodge the initial Appeal in order to ascertain a valid acknowledgement from the Valuation Office. Should the Appeal be returned by the Valuation Office as invalid, then the deposit will be returned in full. In event of the appeal coming back as valid the balance of £500 is payable."
Basically for an appeal to be "valid" you just have to know the rent on the property and be able to sign your name. So 99.9% of appeals are automatically valid. So Hammer are basically charging you £500 to make an appeal (an A4 sheet of paper or online for free), but with clever wording to make it not look like that.
The next issue is they only make an appeal where their "Survey Dept" believes there are reasonable grounds. Problem is they don't mention employing any Chartered Surveyors and with "50,000" clients you would need at least 50. Suspect that what they call a Surveyor is a salesmen paid part commission out of the £500.
There website states the average success rate on appeal is 23.5% but that is a falsehood.
If their "Survey" department thought there were reasonable grounds then what of their "success rate?" No mention is made of this because it is the last thing they would want to mention and if they misrepresent it the data is available from the Valuation Office website to prove otherwise.
It would seem that they have made around 15,000 rating appeals on the 2005 rating list and only agreed 940 reductions. That is less than 7% which is quite appalling given that the basic level of "competence" is a 1 in 3 success rate. see www.leaseholdersunited.com top 150 Rating Surveyors
What it may reflect is that once they have made the appeal they actually don't bother to contact the Valuation Office. This is further supported by going to the Valuation Tribunal website and looking at how many appeals are "dismissed"
2300 of their 2005 appeals have been "dismissed" by the Valuation Tribunal for lack of prosecution. Anyone can check this fact by going to
http://info.valuation-tribunals.gov.uk/Decision_query.asp?Mode=3
Then entering in IG1 2QY into the Agent Postcode Box
Clicking ALL DECISIONS radio button and then clicking search now.
In the end Hammer Properties have developed a fantastic business model which is charging you £500 to go online at www.voa.gov.uk and make an appeal on your behalf, which you can do for free in 5. All legal and above board but dressed up as somethingelse by a clever sales patter.
Any businesses needs to read the RICS Rating Consultancy Code of Practice (search for it on the web) and don't employ someone who doesn't provide it with their contract.
I have known "of" Hammer Properties for some years and they are well known in the industry and by the Valuation Office. It has also got to the stage that having paid £xxx up front for someone to make a rating appeals is known as having been "hammered".
Please everyone "avoid". If you can't afford a proper Surveyor, then do it yourself.

oh and if you have paid by a credit card get in touch with the c.c company you can get your money back if you feel ripped off

Hammer properties in the top six scamming rating firms.what is so diabolical about this firm they take instructions without bothering to see the property.tif they cannot agree initially with the vo the appeal is withdrawn.what would a firm down south know about towns in the north of England.they will be sued in due course.just collating all the evidence.

I can't believe Hammer are even profitable - they have been going for many years yet operate from a very scruffy office in the [***] of the world that is Ilford.

Kim they are profitable because they have scammed so many people.initial fee five hundred pounds and the don't even inspect the premises.as I have said on this and other websites the rating scam going on is a multi million pound industry and nobody is doing anything about it.well these firms are now living on borrowed time.

Why are they now living on borrowed time? These business rate scams have been going on for nearly 20 odd years, what legislative changes are now coming into place to ensure these sorts of scams can no longer operate? As much as I would love these scammers shut down, I have no faith the government or law will do anything about this - apart from closing these firms down, and we all know they just start up shop again under a different company name. Look at cvs surveyors - a prime example that closing these shady companies down and even imprisoning the directors involved acts as neither a deterrent nor a cure.

Kim.these firms will be closed down as the newspapers are now aware of the situation and there will be a number of criminal prosecutions shortly.the problem in the past a lot of victims were too embarrassed to pursue these firms.victims should have gone to their offices and demanded their money back.if refused they should stay there until the police are called.publicity would have followed.regarding cvs i am fully aware that the major shareholder is Jason clarke ex con who was jailed for his part in strattons and old fields.another ex con tony dardis I believe has connections to the firm.however as much as I detest cvs for their cold calling,the number of frivolous appeals and their extortionate fee structure they do not charge upfront.

Hammer properties rate review scam merchants have a very low success rate and a high turnover of staff who were paid below the national wage and have to make money up on commsions paid for by you.

if you paid any part on a credit card claim a charge back from the  credit card clause 75 of the cc agreement if miss sold a product or service you will get your money back.

then the cc company will go after the firm for there money back.

try it what you got to lose, nothing and every to gain.

that'll stuff them