Citations:

RA/272-3/1996

Rating

Updated: 12 April 2022; Ref: scu.168697

Justices have no jurisdiction to check the validity of an entry on the non-domestic rating list.

Citations:

Independent 07-Jul-1994, 1994 WL 1062535

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Secerno Ltd and Others v Oxford Magistrates Court and Another Admn 19-Apr-2011
The applicants each sought judicial review of a decision of the magistrate that he did not have jurisdiction to decline to issue liability notices. They argued that the Council had failed to issue the required notices before placing the properties . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Rating

Updated: 08 April 2022; Ref: scu.81119

Judges:

Hodge QC HHJ

Citations:

[2017] EWHC 3461 (Ch)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Rating

Updated: 05 April 2022; Ref: scu.605332

UTLC RATING – PROCEDURE – refusal of VTE to reinstate NDR appeals struck out for failure to comply with procedural directions and practice statements – approach to be taken by VTE to non-compliance – approach to be taken by Upper Tribunal to appeals against VTE case management decisions – appeals allowed

Citations:

[2017] UKUT 460 (LC)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Rating

Updated: 02 April 2022; Ref: scu.601846

Judges:

Goose J

Citations:

[2017] EWHC 3041 (Admin)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Rating

Updated: 02 April 2022; Ref: scu.601417

UTLC RATING – valuation – 2010 rating list – material change in circumstances – Touchwood shopping centre, Solihull – opening of new ‘Resorts World’ centre six miles away – whether any effect on rental values – appeal dismissed

Citations:

[2017] UKUT 452 (LC)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Rating

Updated: 01 April 2022; Ref: scu.599591

Rating – Hereditament – Warehouse

Citations:

[2017] UKUT 390 (LC)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Rating

Updated: 01 April 2022; Ref: scu.598972

Citations:

[2017] ScotCS CSIH – 64

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

Scotland

Rating

Updated: 01 April 2022; Ref: scu.598630

Rating – Hereditament

Citations:

[2017] UKUT 417 (LC)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Rating

Updated: 01 April 2022; Ref: scu.598457

UTLC RATING – valuation – offices and premises – comparables – differential rates – quantum allowance – lack of parking – allowances for occupational disabilities – appeal and cross-appeal allowed in part – rateable value determined at (2010 list): pounds 1,550,000 w.e.f. 25 March 2013 and pounds 1,530,000 w.e.f. 12 April 2013

Citations:

[2017] UKUT 230 (LC)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Rating

Updated: 28 March 2022; Ref: scu.591398

Judges:

Ter Haar QC DHCJ

Citations:

[2017] EWHC 1933 (Admin)

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Local Government Finance Act 1992 1

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Rating

Updated: 28 March 2022; Ref: scu.591230

UTLC RATING – valuation – factory and premises – whether void over staircase to be included in measurement of gross internal area – value of main space – comparables – relativities for ancillary floor space – appeal allowed in part – rateable value assessed at pounds 23,000

Citations:

[2017] UKUT 201 (LC)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Rating

Updated: 26 March 2022; Ref: scu.587784

UTLC RATING – Valuation – historic buildings used as museums and galleries – whether to be valued on contractor’s basis or receipts and expenditure basis – hereditaments – whether to include events venue, museum shops and cafes – occupation – whether for sufficiently distinct purpose to require entry as separate hereditament – appeals allowed in part

Citations:

[2017] UKUT 200 (LC)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Rating

Updated: 26 March 2022; Ref: scu.584536

Rating lists entries for ATM machines

RATING – HEREDITAMENT – OCCUPATION – sites of automated teller machines operated by banks in supermarkets, convenience stores and petrol filling stations – whether to be separately entered in non-domestic rating list – held – sites of free standing ATMs not separate hereditaments -sites of internal ATMs in rateable occupation of host store -external ATMs in rateable occupation of ATM operator – appeals determined accordingly

Citations:

[2017] UKUT 138 (LC)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Rating

Updated: 24 March 2022; Ref: scu.582129

COMPENSATION – Compulsory Purchase – former retail unit converted to place of worship – long leasehold interest – notice to treat – choice of yields – whether any marriage value – compensation determined at 6,839 pounds – Places of Worship (Enfranchisement) Act 1920

Citations:

[2017] UKUT 31 (LC)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Rating

Updated: 24 March 2022; Ref: scu.582117

RATING – valuation – steelworks and premises – contractor’s method of valuation – whether an additional end allowance should be applied at stage 5 to reflect fact premises operated in conjunction with a second property nearby – appeal dismissed

Citations:

[2017] UKUT 133 (LC)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Rating

Updated: 24 March 2022; Ref: scu.582119

RATING – Valuation – non-domestic hereditament – gallops at racing stables – lack of rental evidence – evidence of other assessments – whether tone of the list had been established – held that it had not – alternative costs-based approach rejected – end allowance for location – appeal allowed – Rateable Value determined at 31,000 pounds – Schedule 6 to Local Government Finance Act 1988.

Citations:

[2017] UKUT 63 (LC)

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Local Government Finance Act 1988

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Rating

Updated: 24 March 2022; Ref: scu.582116

The court was asked: ‘Does a commercial building which is in the course of redevelopment have to be valued for the purposes of rating as if it were still a useable office? ‘
Held: Appeal from decision of CA granted. On the facts found by the UT, the premises were undergoing reconstruction on the material day and that the UT was entitled to alter the rating list as it did to reflect that reality.

Judges:

Lord Neuberger, President, Lord Kerr, Lord Reed, Lord Carnwath, Lord Hodge

Citations:

[2017] UKSC 14, [2017] 1 WLR 851, [2017] WLR(D) 178, [2017] RA 95, [2017] 2 All ER 971, UKSC 2015/0069

Links:

Bailii, WLRD, SC, SC Summary, SC Summary Video

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

At UTLC – S J and J Monk (A Firm) v Newbigin (VO) UTLC 26-Feb-2014
UTLC RATING – alteration of rating list – material day – whether proposal was to correct inaccuracy in list on day of compilation (1 April 2010) or whether list inaccurate by reason of material change of . .
Cited – Poplar Assessment Committee v Roberts HL 1922
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 . .
Cited – Townley Mill (1919) Limited v Oldham Assessment Committee HL 1937
Section 24 of the 1925 Act was considered.
Held: The House re-instated the decision at divisional level. The court described the basis upon which a property was to be valued for rating purposes. Viscount Maugham said it concerned: ‘ a . .
Cited – Arbuckle Smith and Co Limited v Greenock Corporation HL 1960
The appellants had purchased a building which they wished to use as a bonded warehouse. In order to obtain the necessary licence they were required to carry out works of upgrading and repair. The rating authority made a demand for ‘occupied’ rates . .
Cited – Wexler v Playle (VO) CA 1960
The statutory hypothesis was that the reasonable landlord, when contracting with the tenant for the let of a dwelling house, undertook to put the property in repair and would do so by removing ‘readily remediable defects’ or ‘reparable and temporary . .
Cited – Dawkins (Valuation Officer) v Ash Brothers and Heaton HL 1969
The House considered the statutory principle of valuation for rating purposes: ‘But one excludes human realities to a limited and necessary extent, since it is only the human realities that give any value at all to hereditaments. They are excluded . .
Cited – Hounslow London Borough Council v Rent Audio Visual Ltd and Bryant (VO) 1970
. .
Cited – Easiwork Homes Ltd v Redbridge London Borough Council QBD 1970
The Court considered liability for a domestic rate during a period when a block of flats was being upgraded. Under paragraph 1 of schedule 1 to the General Rate Act 1967, where a relevant hereditament was unoccupied for a continuous period exceeding . .
Cited – Ravenseft Properties Ltd v Newham London Borough Council CA 1976
The Court considered an appeal by the owners of offices, which were in the course of erection, against completion notices under para 8 of Schedule 1 to the 1967 Act. The court held that the test for completion of a new building or an existing . .
Cited – Saunders v Maltby (VO) CA 1976
The landlord’s repair obligation in the statutory provision did not extend to uneconomic repairs which were disproportionate to the value of the property; instead the landlord would let the property at a lower rent. . .
Cited – Camden London Borough Council v Langford CA 1980
Eveleigh LJ distinguished between repairs needed to make good decay, which fell within the hypothetical landlord’s repair obligation, and structural work on reinforced concrete columns and beams to preserve the stability and duration of the . .
Cited – De Silva and Another v Davis (VO) 1983
. .
Appeal from – Newbigin (Valuation Officer) v S J and J Monk (A Firm) CA 13-Feb-2015
. .
Cited – Paynter (VO) v Buxton LT 1986
The Tribunal upheld a nil valuation of two flats on the first and second floors of a terraced house in London which, along with the third floor flat, were undergoing a programme of refurbishment works, which were progressing from the top down. At . .
Cited – Benjamin v Anston Properties Ltd LT 1998
Because, under the 1988 Act, the hypothetical tenant bore the obligation to repair, the rental value of the hereditament would be adversely affected by a state of disrepair, . .
Cited – R F Williams (Valuation Officer) v Scottish and Newcastle Retail Ltd Allied Domecq Retailing Ltd CA 15-Feb-2001
When assessing the ratable value of premises, the value had to be determined with respect to the actual use made, and the value of the building in that use. The fact that a building was in an area where with a different use a much greater return . .

Cited by:

Cited – Telereal Trillium v Hewitt (Valuation Officer) SC 15-May-2019
The court considered correct approach to determination of the rateable value of an office building, in circumstances where the evidence showed at the relevant time a general demand in the area for comparable office buildings, but no actual tenant . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Rating

Updated: 06 February 2022; Ref: scu.577937

Appeal by case stated from rejection of claim for non-domestic rates.

Judges:

Kerr J

Citations:

[2016] EWHC 3803 (Admin)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Rating

Updated: 03 February 2022; Ref: scu.594615

[2016] EWCA Civ 1213
Bailii
England and Wales

Rating

Updated: 26 January 2022; Ref: scu.572004

The court was asked whether the air handling system used by Iceland Foods Limited in its retail store at Liverpool was plant or machinery ‘used or intended to be used in connection with services mainly or exclusively as part of manufacturing operations or trade processes’ within the meaning of the 2000 Regulations.
Held: The valuation officer’s appeal failed. The air handling system fell to be excluded in calculating the rateable value of the premises.

Sir Geoffrey Charles Vos Ch, Gloster, Sharp LJJ
[2016] EWCA Civ 1150, [2016] WLR(D) 620, [2017] Bus LR 766, [2017] Bus LR 1098
Bailii, WLRD
Valuation for Rating (Plant and Machinery) (England) Regulations 2000, Local Government Finance Act 1988 Sch 6
England and Wales
Citing:
At UTLC – Berry (VO) v Iceland Foods Ltd UTLC 14-Jan-2015
UTLC RATING – PLANT AND MACHINERY – air handling unit – whether rateable – whether used mainly or exclusively as part of manufacturing operations or trade processes – meaning of ‘trade processes’ – reg.2, . .
Cited – Kirby v Hunslet Union Assessment Committee HL 1906
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 . .
Cited – Townley Mill (1919) Limited v Oldham Assessment Committee KBD 1936
Lord Hewart CJ said: ‘When one turns to the Third Schedule of the [1925] Act, it is apparent that it enumerates that type of machinery and plant which is conveniently described in the case as motive machinery; it is the machinery without which the . .
Cited – Townley Mill (1919) Limited v Oldham Assessment Committee HL 1937
Section 24 of the 1925 Act was considered.
Held: The House re-instated the decision at divisional level. The court described the basis upon which a property was to be valued for rating purposes. Viscount Maugham said it concerned: ‘ a . .
Cited – Union Cold Storage Co Ltd v Bancroft HL 1931
The House considered whether refrigeration equipment was for storage purposes or for the purposes of altering or adapting goods for sale.
Held: It was for storage purposes, although the refrigeration was described as being by means of an . .
Cited – Union Cold Storage Co Ltd v Southwark Assessment Committee QBD 1932
The rateability of certain cooling chambers in a warehouse used for storing food. 25% of what was undertaken there may have been freezing food and the remaining 75% storing food.
Held: Macnaughten J discussed the cold storage plant and . .

Cited by:
At CA – Iceland Foods Ltd v Berry (Valuation Officer) SC 7-Mar-2018
Air System plant excluded from Rating value
The court was asked whether the services provided by a specialised air handling system, used in connection with refrigerated merchandise in the appellant’s retail store, are ‘manufacturing operations or trade processes’ for rating purposes.
Rating

Updated: 26 January 2022; Ref: scu.571933

UTLC RATING – valuation – 2010 Rating List – self-catering holiday units – receipts and expenditure method of valuation – fair maintainable trade – working expenses – depreciation – divisible balance – applicability of Redrose v Elizabeth Thomas (VO) [2014] UKUT 311 (LC) – appeal allowed in part

[2016] UKUT 497 (LC)
Bailii
England and Wales

Rating

Updated: 26 January 2022; Ref: scu.571439

UTLC RATING – hereditament – ratepayer occupying office building and parts of adjoining office building – whether one hereditament or two – held to be entered as two hereditaments – appeal allowed

[2010] UKUT 391 (LC)
Bailii
England and Wales

Rating

Updated: 23 January 2022; Ref: scu.569608

Robinson HHJ
[2012] EWHC 1033 (Admin)
Bailii
Valuation and Charge Tribunals Regulations 1989

Rating

Updated: 20 January 2022; Ref: scu.567391

Patten, King LJJ, Dame Janet Smith
[2015] EWCA Civ 1306
Bailii
England and Wales

Rating

Updated: 09 January 2022; Ref: scu.558054

The parties disputed the effective service of a completion notice so as to bring the new property into the rating list.

Gloster VP CA, Macur, King LJJ
[2017] EWCA Civ 430, [2017] PTSR 1606, [2017] WLR(D) 402
Bailii, WLRD
Local Government Finance Act 1988, Non-Domestic Rating (Alteration of Lists and Appeals) (England) Regulations 2009
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal From – Westminster City Council v UKI (Kingsway) Ltd and Another UTLC 28-Jul-2015
UTLC RATING – procedure – service of completion notice – whether completion notice addressed only to ‘the owner’ valid – whether delivery of completion notice to premises followed by onward transmission of . .

Cited by:
Appeal from – UKI (Kingsway) Ltd v Westminster City Council SC 17-Dec-2018
Short issue as to the requirements for valid ‘service’ of a completion notice so as to bring a newly completed building within liability for non-domestic rates. The notice had been served by email where no statutory authority existed for this.
Rating

Updated: 31 December 2021; Ref: scu.588205

RATING – Method of Valuation -contractors test – modern substitute – end allowances – INTERIM DECISION

[2014] UKUT 164 (LC)
Bailii
England and Wales

Rating

Updated: 03 December 2021; Ref: scu.525943

UTLC RATING – proposal – validity – agreed alteration taking effect at beginning of financial year in which proposal made – further proposal made referring to VT decision – object to achieve earlier effective date for alteration – whether proposal valid – held that it was – Non-Domestic Rating (Alteration of Lists and Appeals) Regulations 1993 regs 4A, 5A, 7 and 13A.

[2009] UKUT 118 (LC)
Bailii
Non-Domestic Rating (Alteration of Lists and Appeals) Regulations 1993
England and Wales

Rating

Leading Case

Updated: 12 November 2021; Ref: scu.373420

LT RATING – composite hereditament – home working from ground floor front room – practice of Chinese medicine (acupuncture and herbalism) – window signage – advertisements – fitting out of room – whether medical practice commenced – appeal allowed – Local Government Finance Act 1988, s66(1)(a).

[2008] EWLands RA – 56 – 2007
Bailii
Local Government Finance Act 1988 66(1)(a)
England and Wales

Rating

Updated: 11 November 2021; Ref: scu.278622

The appellant building contractors had been engaged by the Air Ministry to execute works at an aerodrome. They erected on the site, for the purpose of carrying out the contract, offices, garages, canteen for workmen and other structures. Although the site was handed over to the contractors, the conditions of the contract between the contractors and the Air Ministry specified that the execution of the work was subject to the control and direction of the Ministry’s Superintending Officer. In due course the local rating authority proposed to amend its valuation list by adding the contractors’ officers and other structures as a rateable hereditament. A special case was stated for the opinion of the Divisional Court on the question whether the contractors were in rateable occupation of that hereditament.
Held: The contractor’s appeal failed. The four conditions of rateable occupation are (i) actual occupational possession (which involves actual as opposed to intended user of the land in question); (ii) occupation or possession which is exclusive (ie if the occupier can exclude all other persons from using the land in the same way as he does); (iii) occupation or possession which is of some value or benefit to the occupier/possessor; (iv) occupation or possession which has a sufficient quality of permanence.
Tucker LJ said: ‘Mr Rowe has said that there are four necessary ingredients in rateable occupation, and I do not think there is any controversy with regard to those ingredients. First, there must be actual occupation; secondly, that it must be exclusive for the particular purposes of the possessor; thirdly, that the possession must be of some value or benefit to the possessor; and, fourthly, the possession must not be for too transient a period.’
Jenkins J, dealing with the fourth requirement, considered that it had been met by the fact that the builders’ huts had been on the land for the two years that work was being carried out there.

Tucker LJ, Jenkins J
[1949] 1 KB 344
England and Wales
Cited by:
Approved – London County Council v Wilkins (Valuation Officer) HL 1957
Four builders’ moveable huts, which had been erected as temporary structures on a site for 18 months, only one of which was moved from one part of the site to the other during that period, were claimed chattels and therefore not rateable.
Cited – Tallington Lakes Ltd, Regina (on The Application of) v Grantham Magistrates Court Admn 25-Nov-2010
The company appealed against liability orders made against it for non-payment of domestic rates, saying that in each case it had not been the rateable occupier. The property had been subdivided and let to companies of which the appellant was a . .
Cited – JDE Plant Hire Limited v Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council QBD 2000
The company appealed against liability orders made against it. It owned premises which were subdivided and let to other businesses which it contended were the ones in actual occupation, since it did not benefit from physical, non-transient . .
Cited – Reeves (Listing Officer) v Northrop Admn 6-Mar-2012
The respondent occupied a tugboat with his family as his home. The appellant authority had sought to charge council tax, saying that it was a dwelling. The boat was not a houseboat but a live-aboard seagoing vessel, registered in the Small Ships . .
Approved – 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. . .
Cited – Reeves (Listing Officer) v Northrop CA 17-Apr-2013
The taxpayer had successfully challenged the entry of his houseboat in the rating list at the Valuation Tribunal, but this had been re-instated at first instance. He said that the boat, as a registered seagoing vessel was not a houseboat, and that . .
Cited – Sunderland City Council v Stirling Investment Properties Llp Admn 24-May-2013
The Council appealed by cases stated against dismissal of its summons against the defendant alleging non-payment of non-domestic rates. The property owned by the respondent had been occupied by a tenant, but only by a small equipment box, and the . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Rating

Leading Case

Updated: 10 November 2021; Ref: scu.181050

hilleshopLT1971

Parcels of land were occupied for 9-10 months in a year.
Held: This was not too transient a period to establish a rateable occupation notwithstanding that in subsequent years the occupation passed on to the other land.
Sir Michael Rowe QC, P said: ‘The ratepayers’ possession of the plots they hold in any one year is not intermittent nor is it casual; it is a continuous possession for nine months or so, which cover the whole, at least in most years, of the period during which the land can be cultivated and planted up and the crop grown to maturity and harvested’.

Sir Michael Rowe QC P
[1971] RA 275
Cited by:
Cited – Reeves (Listing Officer) v Northrop Admn 6-Mar-2012
The respondent occupied a tugboat with his family as his home. The appellant authority had sought to charge council tax, saying that it was a dwelling. The boat was not a houseboat but a live-aboard seagoing vessel, registered in the Small Ships . .
Cited – Reeves (Listing Officer) v Northrop CA 17-Apr-2013
The taxpayer had successfully challenged the entry of his houseboat in the rating list at the Valuation Tribunal, but this had been re-instated at first instance. He said that the boat, as a registered seagoing vessel was not a houseboat, and that . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Rating

Leading Case

Updated: 10 November 2021; Ref: scu.451836

Air System plant excluded from Rating value

The court was asked whether the services provided by a specialised air handling system, used in connection with refrigerated merchandise in the appellant’s retail store, are ‘manufacturing operations or trade processes’ for rating purposes.
Held: Iceland’s appeal was allowed and the decision of the First Tier Tribunal restored. The 2000 Regulations had not intended to alter the law: ‘ plant which is used in connection with ‘services to the hereditament’ may also be used in connection with ‘services . . as part of manufacturing operations or trade processes . . ‘. Viewed in this way, the key distinction lies in the main use to which the services are put: in connection with the hereditament, or with the processes within it.’
The rateable value of a non-domestic hereditament is taken to be ‘an amount equal to the rent at which it is estimated the hereditament might reasonably be expected to let from year to year’ on the basis of certain prescribed assumptions. Prescribed assumptions are set out in the 2000 Regulations which include the assumption that any plant or machinery, if it belongs to any class listed in the Schedule to the 2000 Regulations, is assumed to be part of the hereditament in or on which it is situated: ‘ other than any such plant or machinery which is in or on the hereditament and is used or intended to be used in connection with services mainly or exclusively as part of manufacturing operations or trade processes.” The plant ell within this exemption.

Lord Kerr, Lord Reed,Lord Carnwath, Lord Hughes, Lady Black
[2018] UKSC 15, UKSC 2016/0226
Bailii, Bailii Summary, SC, SC Summary, SC Summary video, SC 250118 am Jhearing, SC 290118pm Hearing
Valuation for Rating (Plant and Machinery) (England) Regulations 2000, Local Government Finance Act 1988 Sch 6
England and Wales
Citing:
At UTLC – Berry (VO) v Iceland Foods Ltd UTLC 14-Jan-2015
UTLC RATING – PLANT AND MACHINERY – air handling unit – whether rateable – whether used mainly or exclusively as part of manufacturing operations or trade processes – meaning of ‘trade processes’ – reg.2, . .
At CA – Iceland Foods Ltd v Berry (Valuation Officer) CA 23-Nov-2016
The court was asked whether the air handling system used by Iceland Foods Limited in its retail store at Liverpool was plant or machinery ‘used or intended to be used in connection with services mainly or exclusively as part of manufacturing . .
Much Criticised – Kirby v Hunslet Union Assessment Committee HL 1906
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 . .
Cited – Townley Mill (1919) Limited v Oldham Assessment Committee KBD 1936
Lord Hewart CJ said: ‘When one turns to the Third Schedule of the [1925] Act, it is apparent that it enumerates that type of machinery and plant which is conveniently described in the case as motive machinery; it is the machinery without which the . .
Cited – Townley Mill (1919) Limited v Oldham Assessment Committee HL 1937
Section 24 of the 1925 Act was considered.
Held: The House re-instated the decision at divisional level. The court described the basis upon which a property was to be valued for rating purposes. Viscount Maugham said it concerned: ‘ a . .
Cited – Union Cold Storage Co Ltd v Bancroft HL 1931
The House considered whether refrigeration equipment was for storage purposes or for the purposes of altering or adapting goods for sale.
Held: It was for storage purposes, although the refrigeration was described as being by means of an . .
Cited – Union Cold Storage Co Ltd v Southwark Assessment Committee QBD 1932
The rateability of certain cooling chambers in a warehouse used for storing food. 25% of what was undertaken there may have been freezing food and the remaining 75% storing food.
Held: Macnaughten J discussed the cold storage plant and . .
Cited – Pepper (Inspector of Taxes) v Hart HL 26-Nov-1992
Reference to Parliamentary Papers behind Statute
The inspector sought to tax the benefits in kind received by teachers at a private school in having their children educated at the school for free. Having agreed this was a taxable emolument, it was argued as to whether the taxable benefit was the . .
Cited – Kilmarnock Equitable Co-operative Society Ltd v Inland Revenue Commissioners SCS 16-Feb-1966
Income Tax, Schedule D – Profits Tax – Capital allowances – Industrial building or structure – Building for screening and packing coal – Whether coal subjected to a process – Whether building used for purpose ancillary to a retail shop – Income Tax . .
Cited – Assessor for Lothian Region v BP Oil Grangemouth Refinery Ltd 1985
Lands Valuation Appeal Court – a marine terminal at a petrochemical works, used solely for the purpose of loading refined oil, was premises ‘used in an industrial or trade process’ . .
Cited – Hays Business Services Ltd v Raley (Valuation Officer) 1986
A warehouse was used for the storage of archival materials including documents, films and audio-magnetic tapes. For some items of a sensitive nature, there had been installed specialist items of plant, including heating plant, humidifiers, and . .
Cited – Bestway (Holdings) Ltd v Luff (Inspector of Taxes) ChD 4-Mar-1998
The taxpayer company operated a wholesale cash and carry business from a number of self-service supermarkets. The stores sold groceries, household goods, tobacco, confectionery and various kinds of alcohol. Although the buildings were not open to . .
Cited – Leda Properties Ltd, Re: Computer Centre LT 27-Mar-2009
LT RATING – hereditament – computer centre – whether entry to be deleted from list on ground that incapable of beneficial use – held that it should not be – whether open to appellant on basis of proposal for . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Rating

Updated: 09 November 2021; Ref: scu.605757

Entry of nil valuation on list

UTLC RATING – Valuation – non- domestic hereditament – Local Government Finance Act 1988 schedule 6 – appeal to Upper Tribunal raising a point of law upon agreed facts – agreement that had the subject office hereditament been on the market at the relevant date nobody in the real world would have been prepared to occupy the property and pay a positive price – other comparable office properties in occupation at substantial rents at relevant date – whether a nil (or nominal) rateable value to be entered in valuation list . . appeal allowed.

[2016] UKUT 258 (LC)
Bailii
Local Government Finance Act 1988
England and Wales
Cited by:
At UTLC – Telereal Trillium v Hewitt (Valuation Officer) CA 19-Jan-2018
The land owner appealed from a finding that the offices which it could not let for lack of commercial demand had a rating list valuation of pounds 370,000.
Held: The valuation was set aside and replaced with a value reflecting the market value . .
At UTLC – Telereal Trillium v Hewitt (Valuation Officer) SC 15-May-2019
The court considered correct approach to determination of the rateable value of an office building, in circumstances where the evidence showed at the relevant time a general demand in the area for comparable office buildings, but no actual tenant . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Rating

Updated: 02 November 2021; Ref: scu.565806

Subject to special enactments, people are treated as occupiers of land, land being understood as including not only the surface of the earth but all strata above or below. The occupier, not the land, is rateable; but the occupier is rateable in respect of the land which he occupies. Whether the person sought to be rated has the enjoyment of the land ‘to the substantial exclusion of all other persons’ is a question of in fact is the occupation in respect of which the person is said to be rateable and, in that respect, it is immaterial whether the title to occupy is attributable to a lease or a licence.
Lord Russell of Killowen said: ‘In the next place I would make a few general observations upon rateable occupation. Subject to special enactments, people are rated as occupiers of land, the land being understood as including not only the surface of the earth but all strata above or below. The occupier, not the land, is rateable; but, the occupier is rateable in respect of the land which he occupies. Occupation, however, is not synonymous with legal possession: the owner of an empty house has the legal possession, but he is not in rateable occupation. Rateable occupation, however, must include actual possession, and it must have some degree of permanence: a mere temporary holding of land will not constitute rateable occupation.’
. . And ‘Where there is no rival claimant to the occupancy, no difficulty can arise; but in certain cases there may be rival occupancy in some person who, to some extent, may have occupancy rights over the premises. The question in every such case must be one of fact – namely, whose position in relation to occupation is paramount, and whose permission in relation to occupancy is subordinate; but, in my opinion, the question must be considered and answered in regard to the position and rights of the parties in respect of the premises in question, and in regard to the purpose of the occupation of those premises.’

Lord Russell of Killowen
[1936] AC 511
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. . .
Cited – Regina v Central Valuation Officer and another ex parte Edison First Power Limited HL 10-Apr-2003
Powergen sold a property to Edison. Powergen paid rates under a separate statutory rating regime, and paid an additional thirteen million pounds under an apportionment. Edison later complained that in being rated itself, the authorities had . .
Cited – Tallington Lakes Ltd, Regina (on The Application of) v Grantham Magistrates Court Admn 25-Nov-2010
The company appealed against liability orders made against it for non-payment of domestic rates, saying that in each case it had not been the rateable occupier. The property had been subdivided and let to companies of which the appellant was a . .
Cited – Reeves (Listing Officer) v Northrop CA 17-Apr-2013
The taxpayer had successfully challenged the entry of his houseboat in the rating list at the Valuation Tribunal, but this had been re-instated at first instance. He said that the boat, as a registered seagoing vessel was not a houseboat, and that . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Rating

Leading Case

Updated: 02 November 2021; Ref: scu.181048

UTLC RATING – hereditament – newly erected office buildings – entered in rating list by VO – units lacking small power points and partitioning – whether rateable hereditaments to be entered in the list – held they were not – appeal dismissed – Local Government Finance Act 1988 s 42(1).

N J Rose P
[2011] UKUT 204 (LC)
Bailii
England and Wales

Rating

Updated: 02 November 2021; Ref: scu.440792

It was said that the Arsenal football stadium was under-valued in local rating list. The House was asked who might be a ‘person aggrieved’ and entitled to complain about the under-valuation of a hereditament in the same area.
Held: A person liable to pay rates in the same area was entitled to challenge the valuation of another hereditament even if he could not show any financial or other loss to himself.
Lord Wilberforce said that ‘Uniformity and fairness have always been proclaimed and judicially approved as standards by which to judge the validity of rates.’
Viscount Dilhorne said: ‘While it is true that words in the English language take colour from the context in which they are used, I see nothing in the subsection or in the remainder of the 1967 Act to warrant giving to the word ‘aggrieved’ any meaning other than its ordinary natural meaning. To be ‘aggrieved’ a person must be affected by the matter of which he complains.’

Lord Wilberforce, Viscount Dilhorne, Lord Fraser of Tullybelton
[1979] AC 1
General Rate Act 1967 69(1)
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Walton v The Scottish Ministers SC 17-Oct-2012
The appellant, former chair of a road activist group, challenged certain roads orders saying that the respondent had not carried out the required environmental assessment. His claim was that the road had been adopted without the consultation . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Rating

Leading Case

Updated: 02 November 2021; Ref: scu.470546

Deleayed Rates Claims Service made them Defective

The council claimed that the defendants were liable for business rates. The defendants said that the notices were defective in not having been served ‘as soon as practicable’, and further that they should not be enforced since the delay had created substantial prejudice. The Council challenged the correctness of the Waltham Forest and Nottingham cases.
Held: The court reviewed the issue of delay in issuing claims for rates. Though Honda had been in rateable occupation, the claims had ot been served as soon as was practicable, and, given the Council’s delays which would lead to an unconscionable burden on Honda, the case for recovering the sums claimed was unsustainable. The claim against all the defendants failed.

Burnett J
[2010] EWHC 1505 (QB), [2010] RA 285
Bailii
Non-Domestic Rating (Collection and Enforcement) (Local Lists) Regulations 1989 (SI 1989/1058), Local Government Finance Act 1988
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Encon Insulation Ltd v Nottingham City Council Admn 9-Jun-1999
When the rating authority discovered ratable premises, and issued claims going back in time the test was not whether they were unaware of them earlier, but whether they could have taken steps beforehand to discover the existence of the premises. A . .
Cited – London Borough of Waltham Forest, Regina (On the Application of) v Waltham Forest Magistrates’ Court and Yem Yom Ventures Limited Admn 4-Nov-2008
. .
Cited – Regina v Soneji and Bullen HL 21-Jul-2005
The defendants had had confiscation orders made against them. They had appealed on the basis that the orders were made more than six months after sentence. The prosecutor now appealed saying that the fact that the order were not timely did not . .
Cited – JJB Sports Plc, Regina (On the Application of) v Telford and Wrekin Borough Council Admn 5-Nov-2008
The authority’s demand notice was served later than was practicable. The company now appealed against a liability order.
Held: The ratepayer’s appeal by way of Case Stated was dismissed. ‘demand notices must be served by the relevant authority . .
Cited – Regentford Ltd v Thanet District Council Admn 18-Feb-2004
The council sought to enforce payment of arrears of council tax. The company responded that proceedings had not been begun in time. The company contended that time ran from the day when the council set the precept. The regulations said that time ran . .
Cited – Regina v Secretary of State for the Home Department Ex Parte Jeyeanthan; Ravichandran v Secretary of State for the Home Department CA 21-May-1999
The applicant had failed to comply with the Rules in not using the form prescribed for appliying for leave to appeal against a special adjudicator’s decision to the Immigration Appeal Tribunal. The application, by letter, included all the relevant . .
Cited – Hardy v Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council Admn 27-Jul-2006
Appeal against finding of liability to pay council tax.
Held: A Magistrates’ Court which is invited to make a liability order may be entitled to refuse to make such an order in a case where there has been a serious breach of the mandatory . .
Cited – Howard v Bodington Carc 27-Feb-1877
Imperative or Directory Statutory Requirements
The court considered the consequences of a failure to comply with a statutory requirement.
Held: The distinction drawn between statutory requirements which were ‘imperative’ on the one hand and ‘directory’ on the other involved unfortunate use . .
Cited – London and Clydeside Estates v Aberdeen District Council HL 8-Nov-1979
Identifying ‘maandatory’ and ‘regulatory’
The appellants had sought a Certificate of Alternative Development. The certificate provided was defective in that it did not notify the appellants, as required, of their right to appeal. Their appeal out of time was refused.
Held: The House . .
Cited – Attorney General’s Reference No 3 of 1999: Application By the British Broadcasting Corporation To Set Aside or Vary a Reporting Restriction Order HL 17-Jun-2009
An application was made to discharge an anonymity order made in previous criminal proceedings before the House. The defendant was to be retried for rape under the 2003 Act, after an earlier acquittal. The applicant questioned whether such a order . .
Cited – Regentford Ltd, Regina (on the Application of) v Shepway District Council Admn 25-Oct-2006
A breach of the statutory duty by the billing authority to serve the notice as soon as practicable does not operate in all cases as a windfall to the person otherwise liable, but the breach precludes a claim to payment and a duty to pay only where . .
Cited – Wandsworth London Borough Council v Winder HL 1985
Rent demands were made by a local authority landlord on one of its tenants. The local authority, using its powers under the Act, resolved to increase rents generally. The tenant refused to pay the increased element of the rent. He argued that the . .
Cited – Charles v The Judicial and Legal Service Commission and The Disciplinary Tribunal PC 19-Jun-2002
PC (Trinidad and Tobago) Disciplinary proceedings had commenced against the appellant, the chief magistrate, but the time limits had not been followed. The appellant argued that the time limits were mandatory. . .
Cited – Project Blue Sky Inc v Australian Broadcasting Authority 28-Apr-1998
(High Court of Australia) ‘In our opinion, the Court of Appeal of New South Wales was correct in Tasker v Fullwood in criticising the continued use of the ‘elusive distinction between directory and mandatory requirements’ and the division of . .
Cited – Wang v Commissioner of Inland Revenue PC 19-Oct-1994
(Hong Kong) At first instance the judge found that the deputy commissioner lacked jurisdiction to make two determinations since he had not done so within a reasonable time required by the imperative language of the statute. The Court of Appeal . .
Cited – Boddington v British Transport Police HL 2-Apr-1998
The defendant had been convicted, under regulations made under the Act, of smoking in a railway carriage. He sought to challenge the validity of the regulations themselves. He wanted to argue that the power to ban smoking on carriages did not . .
Cited – Dedman v British Building and Engineering Appliances CA 1973
The claimant sought to bring his claim under a provision which required a complaint to the industrial tribunal to be made within four weeks of the dismissal unless the employment tribunal was satisfied that this was not ‘practicable’. He did not . .
Cited – Regina v Chief Constable of South Wales and Another Ex Parte Merrick QBD 17-Feb-1994
The court considered the failure of the respondent to comply with a statutory requirement to comply with a request from a detained person to consult a solicitor ‘as soon as practicable’.
Held: For the police to deny access to solicitors at . .
Cited – Allan v Liverpool Overseers 1874
The court was asked whether a steamship company was liable to be rated in respect of its occupation of sheds which it occupied under a licence from the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. The court noted that liability for rates fell only on a person . .
Cited – Hewson, Chapman and Co ltd v Grimsby County Borough Council 1953
That storage facilities might stand empty from time to time does not result in their ceasing to be in rateable occupation during those periods. . .
Cited – Milford Haven Conservancy Board v Inland Revenue Commissioners CA 1976
The Minister had power to make provision by order for determining rateable values ‘by such method as may be so specified’. The formula prescribed by the Minister for dock undertakings was based on 4% of their receipts, including receipts from some . .
Cited – Camden London Borough Council v Herwald 1978
Occupation of part of a hereditament by someone who retains legal possession of the whole and whose occupation of the part fulfils the description in the rating list, amounts to rateable occupation of the whole. . .
Cited – Regina v Central Valuation Officer and another ex parte Edison First Power Limited HL 10-Apr-2003
Powergen sold a property to Edison. Powergen paid rates under a separate statutory rating regime, and paid an additional thirteen million pounds under an apportionment. Edison later complained that in being rated itself, the authorities had . .
Cited – P.B. Groenveld BV v Produktschap voor Vee en Vlees ECJ 8-Nov-1979
A prohibited restriction on exports involved a national measure having discriminatory effect: ‘provision [i.e. Article 29 EC; now Article 35 TFEU] concerns the national measures which have as their specific object or effect the restriction of . .
Cited – Edison First Power Ltd v The Secretary of State for Department of Environment Transport and the Regions CA 12-Jul-2001
. .

Cited by:
Cited – Secerno Ltd and Others v Oxford Magistrates Court and Another Admn 19-Apr-2011
The applicants each sought judicial review of a decision of the magistrate that he did not have jurisdiction to decline to issue liability notices. They argued that the Council had failed to issue the required notices before placing the properties . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Rating

Leading Case

Updated: 01 November 2021; Ref: scu.420209

The Freemasons sought to be entitled to rating relief as having the purpose of advancing religion. To belong to the Freemasons a person did not need to practise any religion providing he believed in a Supreme Being and lived a moral life. This was viewed as laudable but not the same as advancing religion. It was noted that it might be argued that religion can be advanced by ‘example as well as precept’ but there was no evidence before the Court that the main object of Masons was to go out in the world and, by their example, lead persons to one religion or another. There was ‘no religious instruction, no programme for the persuasion of unbelievers, no religious supervision to see that its members remain active and constant in the various religions they profess, no holding of religious services, no pastoral or missionary work of any kind.’
Held: The Court defined ‘advancing’ religion as meaning ‘to promote it, to spread its message ever wider among mankind; to take some positive steps to sustain and increase religious belief.’ This was said to be able to be done ‘in a variety of ways which may be comprehensively described as pastoral and missionary.’

[1957] 1 WLR 1080, [1957] 3 All ER 281
England and Wales

Rating

Leading Case

Updated: 01 November 2021; Ref: scu.570864

RATING – hereditament – whether car parking spaces in a car park licensed to residential occupiers and used by them in connection with nearby residential premises were domestic property and so exempt from rating – held they were not – appeal allowed – Local Government Finance Act 1988, s 66(1)

[2010] UKUT 411 (LC), [2011] 16 EG 80, [2011] RA 149
Bailii
England and Wales

Rating

Updated: 01 November 2021; Ref: scu.569613

LT RATING – valuation – 2005 list – outdoor market authorised by Royal Charter and operated by local authority – whether shortened profits method of valuation appropriate – held that it was -appeal allowed – RV increased from andpound;6,100 to andpound;14,300.

[2008] EWLands RA – 64 – 2007
Bailii
England and Wales

Rating

Updated: 01 November 2021; Ref: scu.278623

There were two flats, which the applicant bought with a view to carrying out extensive repairs and converting into one unit. This went only slowly, the work being done by the applicant himself. The applicant had in fact been living in the property, although he said it was vacant for about three months after he bought it. The property concerned was included in the initial valuation list as two separate dwellings, both of which were placed in band C, but in July 1993 the applicant made a proposal to alter the list on the basis that the dwellings should have been included in the valuation list as one entry. The applicant submitted that the dwelling did not, at the relevant date, comply with the statutory assumptions which are set out in Regulation 6.
Held: Conversion of two houses to one requires a new valuation, not an amalgamation. Nevertheless, the simple question before the court was one of law, namely whether the assumptions in that legislation are rebuttable. Carnwath J concluded that they were not rebuttable. He said that an assumption is by definition a hypothesis which may be adopted whether or not it is in fact true.
Carnwath J
Times 10-May-1996, [1996] RVR 203
Council Tax (Alteration of Lists and Appeals) Regulations 1993
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Wilson v Josephine Coll (Listing Officer) Admn 13-Oct-2011
The land owners challenged the re-appearance of their empty and disrepaired dweliinghouse in the valuation list. It had been exempt for twelve months. The appellanat said that the appeal property was not a hereditament as it was not in reasonable . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 26 October 2021; Ref: scu.86620

[2001] EWCA Civ 1096
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Regina (ex parte Edison First Power Limited v Secretary of State for Environment, Transport, Same v Central Valuation Officer Admn 31-Mar-2000
. .

Cited by:
See Also – Edison First Power Ltd v The Secretary of State for Department of Environment Transport and the Regions CA 12-Jul-2001
. .
At CA – Regina v Central Valuation Officer and another ex parte Edison First Power Limited HL 10-Apr-2003
Powergen sold a property to Edison. Powergen paid rates under a separate statutory rating regime, and paid an additional thirteen million pounds under an apportionment. Edison later complained that in being rated itself, the authorities had . .

These lists may be incomplete.
Updated: 19 July 2021; Ref: scu.218302

RA/378/1996
England and Wales

Updated: 02 July 2021; Ref: scu.168698

References: [2013] ScotCS CSIH – 93
Links: Bailii
Jurisdiction: Scotland

Last Update: 23 September 2020; Ref: scu.518517

References: , [1832] EngR 380, (1832) 3 B & Ad 139, (1832) 110 ER 52
Links: Commonlii
Persons in whom the navigation of a river is vested, but who have no interest in the soil, are not rateable to the poor for a dam which upholds the water of such river, and renders it navigable.
Last Update: 26-Oct-15 Ref: 319328

References: , [1832] EngR 574, (1832) 3 B & Ad 533, (1832) 110 ER 193
Links: Commonlii
The owners of mills in the township of H, in compensation for the loss of water occasioned to them within the township by an adjoining navigation, were allowed, by Act of Parliament, to take certain tolls at a lock situate on the line of navigation,
but in a different township : Held, that they were not rateable at their mills in H. in respect of the tolls so taken.
Last Update: 07-Sep-15 Ref: 319521

References: [1824] EngR 531, (1824) 2 B & C 713, (1824) 107 ER 548
Links: Commonlii
A poor-rate must shew upon the face of it in respect of what property the assessment is made upon each individual charged by the rate.
Last Update: 07-Sep-15 Ref: 327522

References: [1788] EngR 223, (1788) 2 TR 660, (1788) 100 ER 356
Links: Commonlii
Where a navigation runs from A. to B, through several intervening parishes, and the tolls for the whole navigation are collected in those two parishes, they may be assessed to the poor-rates in those two parishes for the whole amount according to the proportion collected in each. The justices at the sessions are the proper judges of the equality of poor-rates ; and the Court of B. R. will not interfere upon the ground of their being unequal, unless the inequality be manifestly apparent on the rate.
Last Update: 07-Sep-15 Ref: 368523

References: [1855] EngR 552, (1855) 11 Exch 181, (1855) 156 ER 795
Links: Commonlii
Company liable for rating on wires and posts along line of railway despite possibility that they may have to be removed.

References: [1850] EngR 590, (1850) 15 QB 399, (1850) 117 ER 510
Links: Commonlii
Stat. 35 G. 3, c. 73, renders the incoming and the outgoing tenant of premises in the parish of St. Marylebone liable respectively to the payment of the rates of the parish in proportion to the times of their occupation respectively. A. occupied a house in St. Marylebone for the latter part of a year, in respect of which the outgoing tenant was rated ; and A. paid the portion of the rate in respect of the time during which he occupied, but was not entered on the ratebook as occupier for any part of that time. Held, that he acquired a settlement under stat. 3 W. & M. c. 11, s. 6.