The case concerned the rating of a tied house (including living accommodation) which was subject to statutory rent control, with the effect that the maximum recoverable rent was less than the value entered in the valuation list. The ratepayer appealed on the basis that the figure should be reduced to the maximum rent so recoverable.
Held: The House dismissed the appeal.
Lord Parmoor discussed some of ‘the fundamental principles which permeate the whole system of our rating law’. Actual rents agreed between tenant and landlord are not the test of value for rating purposes, this being one aspect of the ‘fundamental principle of equality’: ‘It has long been recognized, as a matter of principle in rating law, that to make actual rentals the basis of rateable value would contravene the fundamental principle of equality, both between the rate contributions from individual ratepayers, and between the totals of rate contributions levied in different contributory rating areas. In effect the result would be to make the amount on which the occupier of property is liable to pay rates dependent in many cases on the contractual relationship between a particular landlord and tenant, whereas it is dependent in all cases on a statutory direction applicable on the same principle to all hereditaments, and intended to insure equality of treatment as between the occupiers of rateable property and the rating authority.’
He acknowledged, it could be ‘notoriously difficult’ in some instances to ascertain the correct figure, but the duty of the assessment committee was: ‘ . . in all cases, to ascertain for this purpose as accurately as may be, the value of the beneficial or profitable occupation of the particular property, and then to make the statutory deductions.’ For that purpose account should be taken of ‘all that can reasonably influence the judgment of an intending occupier’.
Judges:
Lord Parmoor
Citations:
[1922] 2 AC 93
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Rating
Leading Case
Updated: 06 February 2022; Ref: scu.671891