01618723897

This company is an absolute con! They continue with fraudulent activity and  try their best to pass off the blame to clients that are  trying to get their monry back. I never received an official contract  which I have been trying my best  to work around this amicably but nadine and her team have been so unprofessional manipulative and frauds. It's as simple as that. They know exactly what the situation  is and they have taken money from me and other like  minded people who require assistance  to get reducations on valuations because they claim to apecialise in this field.  Scammers......they had no intention of getting a reductnion. They blackmailed me indirectly asking me remove my review on google and only then would they give me my money back. Nadine had the audacity to inform me that only i can remove my review..indicating that they have tried to remove past reviews. I have requeated them to simply refund my money for a policy  and contract that i have been chasing for almost one year.  The valuation  office her team and herself  (bare in mind calls are recorded)...... all  confirmed  that the property on the set was not  likely to subject a reduction so why did SJ associates take on my case??? They are absolute frauds and unrpfoessional and they wonder why i am upset and annoyed. I have tried my best to remain amicable and work with them but the fact that they asked me to remove my review was  a threat i didn't take to lightly. If they are so confident that they are not frauds and cins then what difference wpuld it have made what my review was... they are playing games and prople like them need to be taken to court. I am.so diaappointed yo come yo leanr that there are several thousand people who have been subjected to this and yet not done anything about it.  We need to be united and work as  ateam
We haven't done anything wrong.... we stand strong.  Bring justice  to our community.

Hi, had sales rep visit this morning. This visit was arranged by a member of staff so I had no idea the rep was coming in, this obviously meant I didn't have time to do any background research into their operation. Nevertheless I gave the rep my time and he put forward a very convincing pitch, promised a guaranteed reduction in our business rates. We've only been open for 4 months so we are still relatively new to business and slightly naive. I foolishly signed on the dotted line but am yet to part with any money. I assume they will threaten with breach of contract if I cancel so do I have any way of just stepping away before any money is parted with? Really appreciate the advice on this one as getting a bit jittery!

Do not pay them.Ask them on what grounds do they think your rateable value is too high.Find out if previous appeals had been put in on the premises.Their contract is not watertight.Misselling a contract overrides the terms of the contract.Remember over ninety percent of their appeals fail.

They are a scam stay very clear.............. They will keep invoicing you and not carrying out the work... Nadine and terrance are directors who control this fraudulent scam................ Bunch of [***] cowboys...................

COWBOYS! Promise you the world only to rip you off and take your money without doing any work, the level of customer service is none existent, Mr Bell hasn't a clue what's is happening with my appeal, neither does any other person in the company.

Lies and more lies, these guys promise the earth, sign you up and then ask for money up front.. always a bad sign. Do not deal with S J Associates Ltd, find a reputable company with good feedback or tackle the ratings value yourself, by following the appeals procedure advise you can find online with a quick search.

I sent them a strong letter and welcomed court action to date I have never heard back - don't pay these con men a bean!
There threats are never followed up so be strong and laugh at these idiots

I was contacted early this month by s j associates and normally I would put the phone down on these type of cold callers but when they mentioned they could help reduce my business rates I took their call.
The lady on the phone asked if they could send someone round to look over the property and work out if I was something they could appeal against, so I said yes she can come over as long as its not costing me anything, she said no not unless we are able to reduce your rates but a full survey has to be done first and under your agreement.
A lady called zoe gee came, did not even move from one place and said yes we can put a case together and asked me to sign a contract, I asked her then by signing this would I be liable to pay you anything she said no it just to give us permission to make our application.  Only after this if its accepted and you wish for us to go further with surveys and a case we would charge you a one off fee of £695.
In no conversation was an agreement of payment made nor did anyone mention the 25% commission going forwards.
They contacted me again today to try and arrange a date for zoe to return and do a more detailed look over property and survey, not sure why but my gut was telling me something wasn’t right and why are they asking for money now when I havnt said go ahead.  The guy on the phone started to get a little tetchy so I told him I don’t wish to take this any further, he then said I am in breach of contract and I now owe them £695 +vat AND a % of the rateable value of our property.
im worried the form I signed has locked me into something I carnt get out of even though all is mis-sold and very back hand, they have already sent me an invoice.
Can anyone advise me and by signing this form mean I owe them??

On what grounds did they say they could get your rates down.Misselling a contract overrides the contract itself.Presumably you must be based in Yorkshire if it was Zoe gee whom you met.You must not pay them until they have told you the reasons for a reduction,then post it on here.Their success rate of less than ten percent does them no favours.

Just doing some research on this Company.  This is one less customer for them thanks to you all.  Good luck and perseverance.

Im amazed to see so many complaints on here. I stumbled upon this as my brother has been ripped off with £954.00. I didn't even know until this morning he had instructed someone. My blood is boiling, he didn't ask me, I do exactly that, for a fraction of the price, on top of that, I will tell you from the outset if it can be done.

Heres the interesting part, since he's instructed them , VO, has increased his rates. Heres their method

May 2016 bullied him into signing the contract

December 2016 Letter sent to him stating they will start in January 2017

January 2017 nothing happened

February 2017 nothing happened

March 2017 nothing happened

Tomorrow I am sending a letter requesting they return his money, failing to comply, I will without further delay take them to court

CONTACT ME IF YOU NEED HELP, IM NOT IN IT TO MAKE MONEY FROM ANY ONE OR RIP ANY ONE OFF

Thank god for this site! We had numerous phone calls from this company, said they had someone in the area that can help us reduce business rates and that the first meeting would be free of charge. When I told them I had to check with the boss he was very pushy and tried to book the appointment there and then. Told him I would call him back if the boss was interested. He ended up booking an appointment without my approval and then the chap turned up to check out the premises. He then asked us to sign a form which luckily I didn't until I did more research on this company. Thankfully I found this site and now I will be staying clear of this company. I can't believe they are still trading, this post goes back to 2012 and there are 20 pages of complaints. He also called me most of the times from his mobile phone which I thought was suspicious anyway. STAY CLEAR

Don’t look at this company based upon mysterious and unfounded web complaints, unless you first do your very own due diligence for you to verify if the allegations are really precise. Many of these kinds of bogus gripe domains are nothing more than coercion racket platforms, from where the agents request a small fortune from the business organisations to clear away the web-pages. Competitors and ex employees misuse these sites to malign companies. They only use these types of sites as they are based in America and above English Law. This is one of hundreds of sites where this is happening to companies like this. Let's see how long this post remains on this thread?

Of course your post won't be taken down,because it is laughable.It is exactly the same post as at 23 January on this message board.

I had a call from s j associates and decided to give them a chance.

There consultant Zoe gee came out to see us and assessed the property. She explained the process and explained the fees.  I asked if she could guarantee savings at which time she said unfortunately not.  But did explain where she thought savings could be made.

I paid and have just had my refund back to 2015 for just over £3000.  Going forward my 2017 revaluation has changed by £1500 per year and the company has resubmitted an appeal on our companies behalf. So over a 7 year period up to 2022 that's over £10000 worth of savings costing us just over £1500.

I will agree the process took a little longer than expected but I rang the valuation office who told me that s j associates were in the negotiating stage and appeals were taking longer than usual due to the revaluation.

Overall I'm happy, I read the contract and another sheet of paper think it was something about there service before I signed.  Had another look today and all fees are explained can't blame a company if you don't read the paper work.

S J ASSOCIATES ARE LIARS AND CHEATS - Don't pay them a bean, Got very aggressive with me and I told the to go forth and multiply. Told them to sue me. That's was over 18 months ago - still wating to hear from them !!!!
Please do not be bullied into paying anything the contract you sign is a complete joke and should the action go to court I will be happy to represent anyone in the UK for Free.
Lairs and Cheats - PLEASE DO NOT PAY THESE SWINDLERS A BEAN !!!!!

I agree with your comments about the idiots who post abuse on here but don´t agree with the rest so let’s clear this up once and for all:

NO WIN NO FEE: except in cases where the measurements are obviously wrong most cases have a range of potential success. There are some with no chance, some with a small chance up to some that have a very good chance. In order to have success we must all agree there needs to be a degree of work carried out and that level of work increases if it is a difficult case and if it has to go beyond being discussed in a programme and actually go on to a hearing. If the eventual outcome is not successful who pays for the work carried out and will that company continue looking for other grounds and ways of achieving success taking the chance these cases may require more work with the possibility of no success. THEREFORE IT BECOMES FAIRLY OBVIOUS: either the work isn't done and fingers cross there is a reduction to charge for or everyone who gets a reduction pays ridiculously high fees to cover the cost of the work.  This is why there is normally a policy for no win no fee only to take on the bigger RV's and to charge fifty percent of the entire reduction.

FEE PAYING: normally the fees cover all the work over a period of the assessment and represent the cost of employing a proper chartered surveyor to deal with the case(s). Upon success there is normally a small commission as a one off and this is true of any subsequent savings. The issue here is that while it is much cheaper upon success people feel aggrieved if the outcome does not show a reduction. When you buy a product you can see what you get but a service is different and it's harder to recognise that everything comes at a cost. There is also the issue that there is no chartered surveyor doing any work and in many cases a fly by night company.....Hopefully, now that the new Check, Challenge and Appeal system is in place, this will eliminate any and all of the fly by night business rates scam companies who set up one day then disappear the next, taking the money, doing nothing in return without every filing any accounts whilst trading as from the 01st April 2017 the agent has to be fully accountable.

Another issue is that people with no win no fee who don't see success feel that’s ok because it hasn't cost them anything but what they can't say for sure is was the work actually done. Do people really work for nothing remember and is there a reduction in there that perhaps needed a bit of real work or the refund would be small and while beneficial to them of no value to the company.

And then you get the idiots on these sites who keep saying do it yourself..... Well unless its cos your measurements are obviously wrong it isn’t that easy and you could actually be under assessed and therefore your rates will go up. It does cost nothing to submit the appeal but then you have to gather and present evidence and even go to a hearing having prepared a statement of case.  More idiots who didn't understand vent their frustrations and anger and then there are the stalwarts who trawl every site like this sitting and waiting to make comments which are mainly adverse and in some cases just personal abuse. You have the likes of one guy who sees himself as some sort of business rates super hero and he is linked to all the ratings sites constantly slagging everyone off under many user names when in reality he then goes after any people complaining offering to deal with it therefore using the sites as data. He always asks for their post codes....look for him/her! He/she also claims that you don't need to be a chartered surveyor but then he would as he is not one. There are people who come on here for fun and some who think it is a truly valuable site. IT REALLY CAN'T be if anyone can say anything and it is immediately uploaded never to be removed. Try it! Just look at the unrelated nonsense on all of these sites.

As with hospital treatment you can only speak as you find ... People who get reductions are happy and those who don't are not...the views of people repeating themselves constantly on these sites are suspect as why do they continually trawl these sites, almost daily looking for reasons to make a comment...bit OCD or guilty of a crime themselves! They are actually hooked on looking waiting for a new entry to make comment on.

The Valuation Office will do it for free as you suggest but unless the business knows what they are doing this is and can be a very complex process.

Action Fraud will have absolutely no interest in any fly by night rating company unless that is any actual fraud has taken place and Trading Standards do not get involved in any matter that concerns a business to business agreement unless again there has been a serious offence committed by the trader.

Any business who is looking to challenge their business rates should make sure that they only use a Chartered Surveyor. There are leading firms of Chartered Surveyors who cover the whole country, but for a small shop your local firm of Chartered Surveyors offering rating advice should be quite adequate. Also you can call the RICS consumer helpline.

http://www.rics.org/uk/footer/contact-us/rics-consumer-helplines/

and they should put you in touch with a local Chartered Surveyor who offers some free rating advice. If RICS can't help try Rating Surveyors' Association - there's a find a surveyor on their homepage.

https://ratingsurveyorsassociation.org/

I will post this advice on every ratings site and would encourage people to read through and see for themselves the rubbish and the obvious personal abuse blogged by people with axes to grind with nothing better to do in their lives.

Hi,
I have also been conned by sj associates. A guy called Kevin Marsh came to us and made me sign up the contract and told me I dont need to pay until the rates are reduced. So i said okay. After the salesman left, I did a quick research and found out that they are scam artist. I email them that I will not pay if the business rates are not reduced. The lady called cheryl or rebecca got angry and said legal department will talk to you and hung up. Then after few days received a letter with two invoices one for the surver £1200 (which was not done) then a 5% for breach of contract of rateable value which is £4000. And now received a notice of intent from Andy Barring Legal department demanding for £4000 and £78 of interest for nothing. And threathning with court and insolvency petition. I dont understand how they can claim such money by misrepresenting and miselling a service. Any advise will be much appreciated.

You must not pay them.Scammers,success rate less than ten percent according to vo records.They will not take you to court,but may serve court papers on you.Please inform us as to developments.

Hi,

Thanks for your response. I sent them a letter with links to this website and several other sites. Lets see what they will say.