Contact from the Business Rates team

We are using a new system to contact businesses. Reasons the team may need to contact you include:

asking you to sign up to paperless bills for Business Rates
reminding you about Business Rates payments that are due
informing you that you are in arrears on your Business Rates payments
sending you information about grants or rate relief that you may be eligible for
asking you to confirm your eligibility for any relief that you receive
asking you to confirm your contact or business details so that we can keep our records up-to-date

How will the team contact businesses?

For most queries, we may send you a voice message, an SMS text message, or an email.

I have been contacted – how do I know if this is genuine or not?

Below are examples of the text messages and emails we may send.

If you are still in doubt, you can call the team on 01274 437744 (lines open 9am to 12 noon, Monday to Friday)

Text message example:

Business Rates SMS message example. The text will be similar to: FAO Mr Joe Bloggs. Bradford Council has an important message relating to your Business Rates account. For details visit https://textm.co.t//b40agf0b926. Please DO NOT ignore.

If you click on the web link in the message, you will then be taken to a form, which will look like this:

Business Rates webform example. The contents will be similar to: Dear Mr Joe Bloggs, Business Rates Account Number: ****3456, Property Address: Britannia House, Hall Ings, Bradford, BD1 1HX, You are currently behind by £516.23 on your Business Rates account.

Email example:

Dear Mr Joe Bloggs, You are currently behind by £516.23 on your Business Rates accounts which needs to be paid immediately. To avoid further recovery action and additional costs, please make a payment to bring your account up to date.

Still concerned this is genuine?