Hereditament
The hereditament view is the destination every result-row click leads to. Open one from a search, a portfolio, a prospecting run, or a comparables result; read its valuation history across rating lists, its ratepayer history with rates charges, every relief charged against it, and the hereditaments most like it. Two framings: a side panel slides in over the source list (the row-click default), or the same content fills the full page (direct URL, share-link, "Open full page" from the side panel). Body identical; framing differs.
Universal header
Address, identifier (UARN), ratepayer, and category read across the top — left to right in the order a surveyor reads. The current rateable value sits top-right with the revaluation delta beside it. The same header shows in both framings; only the chrome differs.
Revaluation delta
The figure next to the current RV reads against the most recent prior list value — e.g. "↓ £3,500 from last 2023 value" when the 2023 list closed at £32,000 and the 2026 list opened at £28,500. "Last 2023 value" means the figure the ratepayer was last paying on, not the compiled 2023 figure where they differ. For the long view of every list, open the Valuation history tab.
Walking the source list
When the side panel opened from a list, the panel header carries previous / next chevrons and an "N of M" counter. The walked order is the source list's filter and sort state — the next row is whichever comes next in the order you were reading. Keyboard binding: ** for previous, ** for next. Direct-URL arrival has no list context, so the chevrons do not appear.
Effective date
The legal date the VOA says the valuation applies from. A compiled list entry takes effect on the list-open date (1 April of the list year); a change update may take effect from an earlier or later date depending on what triggered the change.
From date
The date the entry was published onto the live list. For compiled list entries the from date and effective date match; for change updates they often differ — a material change effective 12 September can land on the published list weeks later.
Reading the valuation breakdown
Bulk-class hereditaments — the high-street shop, the office, the warehouse — carry a summary valuation: a floor breakdown (Zone A, Zone B, ancillary), adjustments (end-of-terrace, quantum allowance, return-frontage), and an adopted RV after rounding. Click the row's expand caret to read the working. Specialised hereditaments without a published summary (about a fifth of the list — construction-costs, annual-accounts) carry "—" in the Scheme column and do not expand.
Scheme — the cohort filter
Each valuation row in a bulk class carries a scheme chip — the VOA scheme reference plus the count of hereditaments valued together in that list. Click the chip to open the comparables result frame anchored on this hereditament with the scheme dimension active; you land in the cohort the VOA values together, ready to compare. The scheme reference is per-revaluation — a hereditament's scheme number is not stable across the 2017 / 2023 / 2026 lists, so use the chip as a filter handle, not a number to memorise.
Changed since last digest
When you open the hereditament view from a portfolio digest or alert, valuation rows whose published-on date falls inside the trigger window carry a small "↑ new since DD MMM YYYY" chip. The date is the start of the window the digest covered — typically the previous digest's run date. The chip tells you which row in this hereditament's history triggered the alert without having to read every row.
Annotate from a row
Each valuation row and each ratepayer occupation row carries a small + button next to its expand caret. Click it to add an annotation pinned to that specific row — a note on a valuation pins to the valuation; a note on an occupation pins to the ratepayer. The composer opens with the target already chosen; no extra pick step. The annotation also reads inline alongside the row in its own tab, and shows in the Annotations tab index.
Ratepayer history
One row per ratepayer occupation, most-recent first. Each row carries the ratepayer's name, the dates they held the account, the occupation state, and the billing-authority account reference. Click the expand caret to see the rates charges that ran during that occupation — relief awards by code, with amount and award date. The current occupation expands by default.
Reliefs — by code or by date
The Reliefs tab opens grouped By code (Retail discount, Small business rate relief, Empty-hereditament relief, and so on) with awards chronological inside each group. Switch to By date to read every relief in the hereditament's history as a single chronological list with a code chip on each row. Use By code when you want to see what kinds of relief have been awarded; use By date when you want to see what was happening in a given year.
Reliefs — temporal pattern at a glance
Each code group carries a small horizontal lane below its header with markers at each award date and faint vertical lines at the rating-list boundaries (2010, 2017, 2023, 2026). Read it for the shape — awards clustered tight, scattered across decades, all in one list, two close together with a gap — without having to scan the table beneath. Hover a marker for the precise date and amount.
Reliefs — group header
The group header for each relief code carries the relief's plain-English name (e.g. "Retail discount", "Small business rate relief") and a short description of what it covers. The number of awards in this hereditament's history sits to the right. Below the header, the timeline lane shows when the awards fell; below the lane, the table lists each award's date, ratepayer, and amount.
Comparables — preview frame
The Comparables tab opens with a small preview of six hereditaments most like this one, alongside two row-action cards: More from this ratepayer (every hereditament the current account holder occupies) and Like this hereditament (the dimensions and refinements below the preview). The preview re-runs as you change the dimension checkboxes; the anchor row (this hereditament) always reads at the top so you can compare.
Comparables — dimensions
Below the preview, four checkboxes choose how the comparable set is built: Same scheme (the VOA cohort), Same category (e.g. retail), Same postcode sector (the first half of the postcode), and Nearby (a count of nearest hereditaments). The dimensions combine by set-union — ticking two widens the comparable set rather than narrowing it. By default Same scheme is ticked; for non-bulk hereditaments with no scheme, Nearby is the default.
Comparables — Nearby
The Nearby dimension reaches the nearest hereditaments around this one — count-tunable at 150, 200, or 250 (default 250). The count grows the search radius until that many are found; in dense urban locations the radius will be small, in rural locations it can reach much further. Use Nearby when local market evidence matters and a fixed metric radius would empty out or over-fill depending on density.
Comparables — RV and floor area refinements
Below the dimension checkboxes, two ranges narrow the set further: RV between £14,250 and £42,750 (±50 % of this hereditament's £28,500) and floor area between 46 m² and 138 m² (±50 % of 92 m²). The brackets auto-populate from the anchor; edit either range inline. Set ranges to widen, tighten, or remove the constraint.
Comparables — full result frame
+ All filters opens the full comparables result frame with the active dimensions and refinements pre-applied. From there, the full filter rail reaches every field — billing authority, primary description code, unit of measure, plus any lens-promoted filters — for the deeper work the preview can't carry. The same destination opens from a Valuation-history scheme chip click, with the Same scheme dimension active.
Annotations — pick a target
The Annotations tab lists every note attached to this hereditament, the current ratepayer, or any of its valuations, grouped by target. Add a new annotation from the + New annotation button at the top of the tab; the composer asks which target to pin the note to (the hereditament itself, the current ratepayer, or a specific valuation). To pin straight to a specific row, use the + button on that row in its own tab — the target is chosen for you.