A system of quarterly revision of valuations was introduced by the Valuation Act, 1988, to replace the previous annual cycle. Under the quarterly revision system the owner or occupier of a property, the rating authority or an officer of the Commissioner of Valuation may apply at any time to have the valuation of a property revised. Applications are sent on a monthly basis to the Commissioner who issues results of revisions at quarterly intervals. As the results are issued only on a quarterly basis it is inevitable that there will always be a certain number of applications on hands in the Valuation Office.
The number of requests received since 1988 for Dublin city is 16,335; and for the rest of the country the number is 61,910. The number of results issued in this period is 11,093 for Dublin city and 48,816 for the rest of the country.
Staff resources do not allow for the compilation of statistics regarding the length of time such requests have been on hands. However, every effort is being made by the Valuation Office to clear outstanding requests. There is a two tier appeal system. The first appeal is to the Commissioner of Valuation and the second level of appeal available to anyone dissatisfied with the Commissioner's determination is to the independent Valuation Tribunal.
The issues involved in appeals can vary in complexity from case to case and this is reflected in the time it takes to reach a determination.