On assessing gasworks to the poor-rate, in ascertaining the gross estimated rental a deduction ought to be allowed in respect of the cost of the meters, which belong to the gas company, but are put up on the premises of the consumers, and are connected with the service-pipes by solder, and by means of those pipes with the company’s mains : as they are mere chattels.
But deductions ought not to be allowed in respect of 1. Retorts, which are instruments in which the coals are carbonized and the gas produced, consisting of circular pieces of clay, to which the heat is applied, and also the arches which contain them, and the pipes, through which the gas passes to the purifiers, the whole being distinct and severable from the floor, and not attached to it by cement or mortar, but only packed with fire-clay. 2. Purifiers, which are massive iron vessels, standing on a brick base, but not fixed to it, connected with the pipes passing through the soil to the retorts by screw-bolts, and in the same way with the pipes passing through tie soil to the tanks and gasholders. 3. Steam-engines, used for driving the machinery, fastened by screw-bolts to a stone base fixed in the soil. 4. Boilers, set in brickwork, fixed in the soil. 5. Gasholders, which are hollow cylindrical vessels of plate-iron, covered at the top but open at the bottom, and rising and falling by means of pillars and pulleys into circular tanks sunk in the soil, into which the gas passes through the purifiers from the retorts. 6. Trade-fixtures, such as pumps and exhausters, which are fixed to the freehold, but would be removeable as tenant’s fixtures. For all of these are things which, though capable of being removed, are yet so far attached as that it was intended that they should remain permanently connected with the freehold, viz., the gasworks, and remain permanent appendages to them, as essential for the purpose for which the works were made. And it makes no difference that, by the practice in letting gasworks, the tenant would be compelled to take to and find capital for the purchase of all the above property.
(1865-1866) LR 1 QB 241, [1866] UKLawRpKQB 2
Commonlii
England and Wales
Rating
Updated: 23 December 2021; Ref: scu.653045
