The Valuation Officeer had entered in the rating list a moored but floating restaurant ‘dock bed, floating restaurant, moorings and premises’. The Tribunal had to decide whether such rateable hereditament had been correctly identified. The vessel was a steel hull without propulsion or steering with a superstructure erected to contain the restaurant. It was permanently moored in position connected to the dock wall by three hawsers at the bow and two at the stern, each looped over bollards with two connections to the dock wall by steel hawsers. The vessel was connected to all main services. Access was by means of four wooden and steel gangways resting on rollers to allow for the vertical movement of the water in the dock. The vessel was permanently in position save that it was moved on two brief occasions every year.
Held: Whether it was rateable depends on whether it is on a piece of land and enjoyed with it with such a degree of permanence that the chattel and land can together be regarded as one unit of occupation. ‘Enjoyed with’ the land means no more than that the chattel, although not forming part of the realty, must have some real connection with the land on which it rests.
Citations:
[2000] RA 89
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Cinderella Rockerfellas Ltd v Rudd (Valuation Officer) CA 11-Apr-2003
The taxpayer appealed against a rating assessment on a barge permanently moored at a riverbank. He claimed that as a chattel, it should not be rated.
Held: The vessel was a chattel, but its occupation could be an occupation of the riverbed. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Rating
Updated: 05 May 2022; Ref: scu.181049