Links: Home | swarblaw - law discussions

swarb.co.uk - law index


These cases are from the lawindexpro database. They are now being transferred to the swarb.co.uk website in a better form. As a case is published there, an entry here will link to it. The swarb.co.uk site includes many later cases.  














Rating - From: 1900 To: 1929

This page lists 7 cases, and was prepared on 02 April 2018.

 
Gage v Wren [1903] 67 JP 32
1903


Rating, Magistrates

1 Citers


 
Kirby v Hunslet Union Assessment Committee [1906] AC 43
1906
HL
Lord Macnaghten,Lord Halsbury
Land, Rating
The Act provided that the assessment of hereditaments was regulated on the principle that the rateable value was the rent which might be expected to be given for the hereditament alon Held: The House disapproved a distinction based on whether the plant was a fixture, in the traditional land law sense. A factory's assessment to poor rate must be based on the standing equipment of machinery in the factory, irrespective of whether or not it was affixed to the freehold so as to form part of it. Held: The House disapproved a distinction based on whether the plant was a fixture, in the traditional land law sense. A factory's assessment to poor rate must be based on the standing equipment of machinery in the factory, irrespective of whether or not it was affixed to the freehold so as to form part of it.
Lord Halsbury said that he would: "decline myself to enter into what I may call the original equities which might have guided this matter. It is, enough for me that a long series of decisions, for certainly half a century, have established the bald proposition, which is all I am insisting upon, namely'. that although the machinery may not be part of the freehold, it yet is to be taken into account, and in saying that, I do not want to muffle it in a phrase, but what I mean by that is, that to increase the amount of the rate which is exacted from the tenant you may enter into that question and form a judgment upon it, although, as a matter of fact, the machinery may hot be attached to the free- hold."
Parochial Assessment Act 1836
1 Citers



 
 Smith's Dock Co Ltd v Tynemouth Corporation; 1908 - [1908] 1 KB 315

 
 National Provincial Bank of England v United Electric Theatres; 1916 - [1916] All ER 106
 
Assessor for Glasgow v Gilmartin (1920) SC 488
1920


Rating, Scotland
A small hut which could be moved on wheels was not rateable in Scottish law.

 
Poplar Assessment Committee v Roberts [1922] AC 93
1922
HL
Lord Buckmaster, Lord Parmoor, Lord Atkinson, Lord Carson
Rating
A public house was to be valued for rating under the 1869 Act. The question was whether the 1920 regulations, which limited the rent which could be charged, limited also the rating value. Held: The statutory hypothesis used in setting a rateable value of a hereditament is the means of establishing the value of the occupier's occupation and that the amount that the occupier actually pays in the real world in order to occupy the hereditament, whether that amount arises from an agreement or by force of statute, will not be evidence of this value unless it accords, or can be adjusted to accord, with the statutory hypothesis. The statutory restriction was not material to the determination of the valuation for the purposes of rating.
Buckmaster L said: "From the earliest time, it is the inhabitant that has to be taxed. It is in respect of his occupation that the rate is levied, and the standard in the Act is nothing more but a means of finding out what the value of that occupation is for the purposes of the assessment. In my opinion, the rent that the tenant might reasonably be expected to pay is the rent which, apart from all conditions affecting or limiting its receipt in the hands of the landlord, would be regarded as a reasonable rent for the tenant who occupied under the conditions which the statute of 1869 imposes." Lord Parmoor: " Under 43 Eliz.c.2, rates are to be levied upon every occupier of lands, houses etc. The distinction between occupier and owner, in this connection, is of primary importance. The occupation of property may be, and often is, distinct from its value to the owner. This distinction would probably be emphasised where an artificial statutory maximum is fixed and a statutory restriction prevents an owner from recovering from any tenant a greater amount, as rent, than the statutory maximum."
Valuation (Metropolis) Act 1869 - Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act 1920
1 Citers


 
Kingston Union v Metropolitan Water Board [1926] AC 331
1926
HL
Viscount Cave LC
Rating
The principle for valuation of properties for rating was to estimate "the rent at which the hereditaments might reasonably be expected to let from year to year". But in applying that principle, so simple in appearance, to certain classes of hereditaments, great difficulties were encountered, and it was found necessary for rating experts and the courts to have recourse to hypotheses of a more or less violent character. The mains and other works might produce no rent at all, for no person would wish to become the tenant of them; but when seen as part of a great undertaking extending over a large and populous area, might be quite indispensable to the undertakers (who must be regarded as possible tenants) and so might command an extortionate rent. For a fair assessment a formula was required which…would not compel the undertakers to pay rates on an aggregate sum exceeding the whole yearly value of their undertaking; and accordingly rating surveyors, soon after the passing of the Act of 1836, began to assess waterworks and other like concerns, such as railways, canals, gasworks, etc, upon the basis of the profits earned by the whole undertaking. The profits basis of valuation was a means of estimating the rent that the hypothetical tenant would pay.
Parochial Assessments Act 1836 1
1 Citers


 
Copyright 2014 David Swarbrick, 10 Halifax Road, Brighouse, West Yorkshire HD6 2AG.