Owners of small firms in Bradford are being approached by companies offering to reduce the amount of business rate they have to pay in the city.

Saleem Ali, whose brother Nadeem runs printed packaging firm Megapak in Manningham, was contacted by Manchester-based consultant and referencing surveyors Lister Johnson.

"They said we must be paying too much in business rates and they would try to get them reduced," he said.

"A rep came to see us and he told me they would tap into the Inland Revenue computer to find out what businesses in our area and in the whole of the UK with the same area of space were paying.

"He said he would then paint a grey picture of the buildings and the surrounding area and put in an appeal on the grounds we are paying too much.

"They told me their other customers including the Yorkshire Building Society and a firm called TPL Ltd in Bury. I was in a rush so I signed the papers."

He later cancelled the contract by phone, telling Lister Johnson he was not authorised to sign it in the first place because he was not the owner.

The firm's leaflet says: "Following an acknowledgement of your appeal by the Valuation Office, we will notify you by letter with a view to arranging a full referencing survey. It is at this point that our fee becomes due."

The fee is £495 plus VAT and 25 per cent of any business rate reduction or rebate which follows.

But a spokesman for the Inland Revenue's Valuation Office Agency said any business owner can apply themselves to have their rate reduced - without any cost to them.

"If a trader feels they have grounds to make an appeal against their rateable value, they can do it direct to the agency free.

"Information about rateable values in an area is available free to the public at the local council or agency offices.

"But if you want to appeal, you do have to have grounds - saying it's too high or you can't afford it isn't in itself a good-enough reason.

"And you will as a matter of course receive an acknowledgement from the Valuation Office when your appeal application is received."

Rights and Wrongs contacted Lister Johnson employee Susan Taylor who confirmed the contract with Megapak had been cancelled.

Asked how the company went about trying to get business rate reductions, she said: "We look into whether there are grounds to appeal on the business rates and when we have established that, we submit an application.

"We do not say we can get the rates reduced."

She refused to answer further questions and put the phone down on Rights and Wrongs mid-sentence three times.

Another employee, senior referencing surveyor John Tobin, rang to confirm the contract cancellation but also put the phone down when asked how the company goes about trying to get the reductions.

A Yorkshire Building Society spokesman said: "We have one firm of agents who deal with all our properties nationally on ratings and they are not Lister Johnson."

Bottled water to be regulated by next spring

Drinking bottled water rather than the variety from the tap has become a lifestyle choice of living in the nineties. And new government rules being introduced will protect consumers with the introduction of strict labelling.

Under the new Natural Mineral Water, Spring Water and Bottled Drinking Water Regulations, 1998, all minerals in 'natural mineral water' will have to be labelled.

Spring water taken from the same source must not be sold under two different brand names and all bottled drinking water sold in the UK must conform to Europe-wide standards on limits for toxic substances like lead and other chemicals.

Food Safety Minister Jeff Rooker said bottled water in the UK was big business and the range of natural mineral waters, spring waters and other types of bottled drinking water on sale today was huge.

He said: "These rules will make sure that consumers get the information they need to make an informed choice between the different products which meet strict safety requirements; and are protected against false or misleading claims.

"The UK regulations on labelling will conform to wider European rules. They will also apply to bottled water from countries outside the EU."

The public, consumer organisations, bottled water producers and any other interested groups are being invited to comment on the draft of the regulations.

Consultation stops on January 25, 1999, and the regulations are likely to come into force by the spring of the same year.

l For a copy of the consultation documents, send a SAE to MAFF Joint Food Safety and Standards Group, Food Labelling and Standards Division, Branch C, Room 325b, c/o Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR or call 0171 2386480.

When a threatening letter brings action...

Following on from the Christmas Shoppers' consumer rights special which appeared last week, the Telegraph & Argus can report back on the Yuletide advice in action.

Ironically it was West Yorkshire Trading Standards officer Bruce McKay who found himself complaining to a retail company after the dish-washing machine he bought from them went on the blink.

Mr McKay, who lives in Guiseley, purchased the machine for £370 in August last year but a couple of weeks ago it started to go wrong so he rang the company to get it fixed.

To his amazement he was told as the manufacturer's twelve-month warranty had expired, there was nothing the company could do.

Mr McKay refused to accept the explanation but he got the same response from the store's manager who then offered Mr McKay the opportunity to buy an extended warranty instead.

The trading standards officer politely told the manager he preferred to rely on his statutory rights.

Mr McKay said: "I wrote a firm but polite letter to the head office of the company. I said what had happened and that I hadn't had satisfaction from the shop.

"I told him if the machine wasn't fixed then I would get my own contractor to fix the fault and then issue a summons under the small claims procedure of the county court to recover the money.

"I gave him seven days to respond before I went to court. I also sent a copy of the letter to the store's senior manager and my credit card company, which I used to buy the washing machine in the first place."

Three days after the letter was sent, a message was left on his answerphone from the store in question asking him when the repair could be carried out.

Mr McKay said: "The repair cost £73, which is about a fifth of the price of the dish-washer. If you bought a car for £10,000, it would be the same as paying £2,000 for one repair which puts it into context.

"My statutory rights under the Sale of Goods Act means I have the right to take legal action against the supplier of goods up to six years after buying them.

"This of course is subject to the rule of common sense which looks at the type of product, its life expectancy, its cost, and the amount of use it gets.

"As my dish-washer developed a fault 15 months after I'd bought it, then I could reasonably expect to pay about a sixth of the cost of repair. As it turned out the company paid for it all."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.