01618723897

Under no circumstances should your friend pay this firm for the cancellation fee.This firm will have enough problems very shortly.If they try to take legal action please let us know as there will be free legal advice.I have the feeling they will threaten but not court action.If they did they will be in a very precarious situation.

you are steven simon from leeds. You do indeed pretend to be a property consultant and you use many other names to post bad press to suit your own needs. Many do know who you are ..... For all those who don't remember the name Steven Simon....he is justiceforvictim.

who are roger hannah and co

Q - What you gain from revealing real identities on this site I do not know.  In my experience Justice For Victims helped me out no end.  I took his advice (FREE by the way) and I'm very glad I did.  I wouldn't blame JFV for using multiple identities to protect himself from the constant malicious backlash he gets on sites like these.  At the end of the day the business conducted by SJ Associates is not at all what it seems and many hundreds of small business owners are handing over money under false pretences.  The 'sales' people working on behalf of SJ Assoc are not open and honest; they hover just above the law rolling out their crafted 'scam' over and over.  And that is what it is - a con, a scam a hustle!

In my case I had absolutely no chance of a rates rebate from the very outset.  The salesman from SJ Assoc (had he been a decent person with morals and a conscience) would have told me that at the beginning. I was told this by the Valuation Office directly.  They explained that had I paid an independent firm of reputable chartered surveyors to come and survey my property this is what they would have told me.  A rates appeal would not have been lodged and I would have paid less than half what SJ Associates charge.  SJ Associates just bung in an appeal, take your money and do nothing until they withdraw it.  They don't supply any supporting evidence, they don't speak to anyone at the VO, they don't compile a file, they can't even fill in the online application without typo's!  This is fact.

Every person on this board complaining about SJ Associates have a right to alert others.  We all run our own businesses, working really hard to make ends meet.  When these people come along and give the business owner a glimmer of hope that they could be saving money - or even getting money back (whoopdidoo!!) its incredibly tempting to sign up with them. SJ Associates have learnt to manipulate the rates appeal system for their own personal financial gain and nothing else.  Without someone like Justice For Victims trying to bring this to people's attention tirelessly how will it ever come to an end.  The practice is unjust and immoral.

I err on the side of caution but from your pointless post you clearly have links with this company.  If you were any sort of a 'man' who really believed that SJ Associates were offering a decent service that was completely transparent and open and above board you would not hide behind a moniker.  You would be genuinely posting on here published facts and figures (and I mean published and in the public domain) about how many successes you have had.  The fact remains that I believe it is very little.  (Probably less than 5% I'd say which in effect would be just a stroke of luck).  You would not rise to people 'bashing' your firm and you would have the confidence to be pleasant in your comments.  That you post nonsense such as this useless post just shows what a shoddy bunch of people SJ Associates are.  Shame on you.

By the way - if anyone needs help or advice then feel free to contact me.  You'll find my contact details on page 15!  Kindly posted by some m*ron linked to SJ Associates thinking it would threaten me in some way to shut up.  If I can stop just one more person lining the pockets of the two Directors of SJ Associates Shower of S**t then I will be a very happy girl indeed...

Grantham Businesswoman - In short, as Justice for Victims has said - Nothing!  Get your friend to speak to the Valuation Office directly.  Have a chat about the case and ask the right questions. Then compile a letter of complaint to SJ Associates setting out the reasons why your friend feels they conned her.  Supply your supporting evidence (do some research first) and send it off.  Worse case scenario raise a claim via the online small claims portal.  It is worth lodging a letter with the Insolvency Service (SJ Associates are a limited company after all who are not operating in a professional manner) and a letter to the Trafford Trading Standards.  Your friend MUST complain and I cannot reiterate this enough. Just as an added bonus ask your friend to get in touch with the business correspondent at your local paper and tell them the story. The more publicity for this the better.

This firm and a couple of others are repeat offenders.  Tell your friend to not feel embarrassed about what they have done and what she signed up for.  They claim to the 'experts' in this field (and you believe them) and to be fair bombard you with hundreds of cold calls until you fold.  This is pressure selling at its worst.

Finally - as we appear to be in the throws of naming and shaming on this board - if you are a business in Wales and you are approached by Dean Howells of SJ Associates run for the hills!  He is nothing short of a conman.  And a fellow Welshman to boot!  If you are reading this Dean Howells I hope you are delighted with yourself and the commission you earned from me.  You ought to be ashamed of yourself.  You lied and you duped me completely.  Llongyfarchiadau!

I am only concerned as I know people JFV as we are now calling him has contacted advising wrong information and actually was quite offensive and threatening. As this is a site for exposing traits such as this why can't I comment on other users who choose to hide behind user names when they actually go round touting for business themselves. He may well have helped you and all power to you but you have to speak as you find and he certainly did not help my friend. As with what he always does why is it the minute anyone makes adverse comments about what you frequenters are saying "we must be from the company".....freedom of speech matey: Steven Simon needs to "come out" and be himself if he is so pure and driven ...why does everyone including me user such ridiculous user names.............

I think because there has been so much interference on this board from SJ Associate staff you can't help but treat everyone with a modicum of suspicion.  Please accept my apologies if that is not the case.  Justice for Victims gave me the confidence to do something about my situation but the donkey work I did myself.  I have some legal background so I drafted a very lengthy letter - but this was all my own work.  Ultimately you can only take responsibility for your own actions.  I just needed someone to tell me that 'yes - you shouldn't stand for what they did' and JFV at the time was that person.

The fundamental purpose of this board is to warn others about 'who calls you'.  SJ Associates being one of the very worst for telephone harassment.  I mean seriously - we were getting something ridiculous like 10 calls a week.  As soon as I signed up with them and went through the motions the calls stopped and we haven't had one since!

If your friend has issues then they should really take that up with Justice for Victims off board.  All I want to do is warn others about SJ Associates and to not make the same mistake I did.  (Not who did what or why or not!)  Hopefully anyone searching the internet will stumble across this thread and it will help them - before they sign.  No one should be afraid of making a stand against something that clearly is not right. Small business owners are being ripped off to the tune of £695 plus VAT!!!  I think we hide behind our user names because we're embarrassed.  No one likes to admit who they are when they've been totally stupid!  You can pretty much work out who I am from previous posters - and where my business is - but I don't really care.  I am more than happy to help anyone in the same boat as me.  The more that do the less likely that this awful scam will be repeated.

Pardon my curiosity, but isn't "Q" a user name??

yes grant I did make reference to that very point in my post that I was just as guilty.... If you read it to the end!! Anyway I am Mandy....nice to mee you grant!

Q,I don't believe a word you say.firstly who is your so called friend?If you want the truth I believe you are trying to deflect from the behaviour of these so called rating firms by abusing me.These firms will not win.Your friend is a figment of your imagination.Every time you and your other aliases have a go at me,only makes my resolve stronger.Read the newspapers in the not too distant future.These companies will be named and shamed.

what don't you believe you are Steven Simon?? How odd you don't know who you are. Why do we have to believe everything you say but if anyone disagrees with you in the slightest they are either supporting companies or work for them.  Why can't it just be that you are a fraud and a charlatan who hides behind a user name in fact an alias that you are accusing me of....What a sad little life you appear to have to sit on the internet waiting to pounce on any entries that don't agree with you ... once and for all I am not deflecting or working for or anything to do with this or any other company....I just know you and while you may not believe that I do be assured I really do... I also see how you manipulate and scheme to use this site for you own ends... how do you know that I have not met you or that I have been told of you....are you so perfect that you have never done anything wrong that some one could come back at you with...... perhaps now it will be you that will be named and shamed......

Q - This is a board for letting people know how SJ Associates are conducting improper business practices and conning the small business owner out of money.  It is not a board to 'personally attack' anyone.  It is not a board to keep on and on about who everyone is.  You are making this thread personal and that is not the point.

We are trying to draw people's attention to how SJ Associates operate and if that stops one more person handing over their hard earned cash then it was worth it.

SJ Associate staff have posted on here previously - if you start with the thread at page 1 you will see. They generally post pointless rubbish.  Nothing helpful and nothing to support their customers who feel let down by them.  Certainly no apologies. If you personally had been affected by this company and lost money then you would understand how your inappropriate posts (that have nothing to do with the topic) are belittling what the rest of us have been through.  You ought to read your own post back to yourself out loud.  I'm afraid you are coming across in much the same vein.  I have already offered to help you/your friend - and indeed anyone - who has been through the same thing as me with S J Associates.  You didn't so much as acknowledge it. You just continue to post this nonsense.

I fully respect your position and apologise if you feel I am misusing the site however Mr Steven Simon has misused this site for his own ends and continues to do so protesting his innocence while all the while having the safety of not actually have a business address or telephone number to set up our own "whocallsme" for him.  He scouts this site and admittingly may help some but for others he swoops in to take over appeals and misleads punters into going to him on a no win no fee basis instead of setting up a proper business and having to maintain and run this business at his own expense.  Also his relentless attack on other companies:  does he not consider all the clients who will be left completely out of pocket and with their appeals not dealt with if all these companies go: or perhaps that's exactly what he wants to then swoop in take over and charge them a no win no fee commission!!! He would have a field day and all with completely no overheads like vat or corporation tax or rent etc.  As you say this thread has been going since 2010....bloody hell .. This is not nonsense to me and I have no other means of warning people about this very clever unscrupulous individual. Lets be honest if you dish it out you should be able to take it!

If all these companies go down it will be no bad thing.

Appealing your rates is a process that ANY individual can do - themselves - for free.  You do not need to do it through a firm of chartered surveyors, surveyors or any sort of broker.  No one will be out of pocket.  If you strongly believe that you are paying above what is considered fair for your rates in comparison to others in your area (in a similar property) or are not being given the appropriate allowances against your rateable value then you can launch your Rates Appeal yourself.  The information on the VOA website is free to access.  By comparison you can then figure out whether the figure you pay is fair (or not) and submit an appeal for nothing.

If you do not have the confidence to complete the process yourself then I strongly urge anyone to employ a REPUTABLE firm of Chartered Surveyors registered with the RICS.  (One of the big brand firms).  They will visit and complete a site survey and tell you whether you have a case before submitting an appeal.  Yes this may cost you £100 or £150 even but its far better to spend this and feel happy about what rates you are paying than to hand over £695+ for absolutely nothing only to then realise that you are tied in to the firm for the next 3 RV periods equating to some 17 years!  By signing their contract they will hassle you for commission of 25% in each rateable period. Money for nothing!

By hiring a reputable honest firm you will not be charged 25% commission each year.  You will pay a one off fee.  If they advise you that you have a sound case then you are going to get your money back anyway.

The sooner SJ Associates are closed down - and others like them - the better it will be for everyone.  They operate on a loop hole in the system that they manipulate for their own end - purely driven by greed.

Thank your support in this matter.I agree with everything you say.However you may not know that if a rating company does not comply with its obligations in the first rating list,the rest of the contract becomes null and void.This was a decision made recently by a judge at folkestone court I believe.This means that a contract made until 2027 would become null and void.You can cancel by recorded delivery without fear of being sued.As regards q I shall be posting a message to him tomorrow.Depending upon his response I shall either stop posting any further messages and stop my campaign or alternatively I shall carry on to the bitter end.

I work for one of the 'big brand firms' and agree with what you and JFV say. I know who JFV is and have no doubt that he is on the side of SMEs doing his best to protect unsuspecting businesses from 'advisors' who use the complexity of the business rates system and its significant cost to persuade firms to part with money or sign contracts on punitive terms, on the back of their promises of a rates saving.

There is no such thing as a guaranteed saving as an appellant must persuade the Valuation Officer of the merits of an appeal, failing which a tribunal will adjudicate. Businesses do not need to appoint a rating surveyor to assist them, but a specialist is (I would suggest) more likely to be able to judge the merits of making an appeal in the first place (for a nil or modest fee) and then to negotiate the most favourable outcome. Yes - make sure the firm and the surveyor are genuinely members of the RICS but also Google them before signing up. Unfortunately even some RICS members act inappropriately.

I feel that all of this can be put down to individual experiences and agree there is no such thing as guarantees there is more to most appeals than just submitting them for the VOA to offer a reduction.  They can be far more complex and as for a grounds one you only really get one chance it can be risky to not use someone who knows what they are doing as once its dismissed its difficult to put one in again until the new list. I have seen so many appeals fail as individuals don't understand the need for a statement of case prior to hearing etc: and so they advice that you can do this yourself is actually misleading. I have also seen many cases where the chances have been minimal but the rate payer has took a chance understanding this and for some it has worked out. If only the sure fire cases went forward there would be millions that the government get to keep as a result of taking a chance.

I too work for one of "the big companies", and am familiar with the sharp practices of many of the firms who have been named on this, and other threads, probably more so than a lot of other people as I've taken a particular interest in them.

I too know who Justice for Victims is, and can confirm I believe him to be reputable.  I have seen Valuation Tribunal decisions on cases he has won, which are also freely available on the internet for all to see.

With regards to charging fees up front, I have never, in well over a decade of practice, charged a fee up front for any work.  A percentage of savings certainly, but only after a reduction has been secured.  If firms think they can charge on a "no win no fee" basis, which is payable when the Valuation Office acknowledge the appeal, and not be labelled a cowboy, they are mistaken. They are being uncovered and they will be stopped.  It is about educating people as to how reputable, and dis-reputable, firms work.

Do your homework at the end of the day before signing a contract. If you're going to make allegations, about a firm, or an individual, then make sure you have the evidence to back it up.

Taken from the telegraph newspaper regarding no win no fee surveyors:

“It’s deliberately made difficult for small business to appeal, too,” he warned. “You need to be very persistent. They send people from the valuation team to re-measure everything and it takes forever. We had to wait 18 months before we got our money.”

Mr O’Connor advises business owners to be very wary of appeals specialists that call up offering no win, no fee terms. “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” he said. “We spent a lot of time looking for a surveyor that knew the ins and outs of business rates.”  A report by Rebbeca Burn- Callender 13/3/15.

Thanks for your reply.  I do know Rebecca and am familiar with her articles.

As I mentioned, it is very important to be able to differentiate between a reputable firm and the cowboys.  Both will say they are no win no fee, however the cowboys fee becomes payable when an appeal is acknowledged by the Valuation Office (which you get as a matter of course when you serve an appeal and before the appeal has even been looked at) whereas reputable firms will only charge their fee once the reduction has been confirmed and a refund paid by the council.  There is a big difference.

I found the following article to be of use too - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-spot-cowboy-rating-firms-cian-ocarroll