The Valuation Tribunal for England has issued an important decision in respect of Completion Notices served to bring new or altered properties into the rating list. The Tribunal has determined that where parts of a building are not "new" such Notices cannot be effective and cannot be used to bring property which had previously been deleted from the rating list back into the list. The decision is a significant one for those undertaking alterations to properties and for billing authorities. ...Read More

The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) judgment in Shaw v Benton (VO) (2018) UKUT 0168 (LC) has determined that a workshop at Newton Business Park, Hyde, Cheshire had to be valued for rating purposes in a reasonable state of repair because, although works were needed to put the property into a lettable condition, they were ones that a reasonable landlord would consider it economic to undertake. The attitude of the actual landlord to the works was not the determining factor. ...Read More

The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has reinstated an appeal that had been struck out by the Valuation Tribunal for England (VTE) for an alleged failure of the appellant to comply with the VTE's practice directions. The Upper Tribunal is critical of the VTE's "impermissible" policy of considering only "exceptional reasons" for requests to vary its practice directions. The Tribunal also had comments for the Valuation Office Agency about adopting "a more principled approach" to disputes on procedural issues. ...Read More

The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has reinstated two business rates appeals that were dismissed by the Valuation Tribunal for England (VTE) as invalid. The VTE was wrong to find that the appeals were invalid and wrong, also, to introduce the concept that they represented an "abuse of process". The Upper Tribunal found that the appeals were valid and should be remitted to the VTE for proper consideration. ...Read More

The Welsh Assembly Government has issued a consultation paper on tackling business rates avoidance. The consultation paper seeks views on a range of proposals designed to tackle alleged avoidance of business rates, particularly rates in respect of empty properties. ...Read More

The Secretary of State for Housing Communities and Local Government, Rt Hon Sajid Javid, has announced an independent review of his own department's process and procedures for the governance of the business rates system. The review will be led by Andrew Hudson, the former Director General for Public Services at HM Treasury, who is also a former Chief Executive of the Valuation Office Agency. The review recognises the increasing importance of business rates in funding local government. ...Read More

The legislation to reverse the effects of the Supreme Court judgment in Woolway (VO) v Mazars LLP (2015) has now been introduced into Parliament. The Rating (Property in Common Occupation) and Council Tax (Empty Dwellings) Bill provides that, where two or more hereditaments occupied or owned by the same person meet certain conditions as to contiguity, those hereditaments may be treated for the purposes of non-domestic rating as one hereditament. ...Read More

In his Spring Statement 2018, the Chancellor has announced that the next rating revaluation in England will be brought forward from 2022 to 2021. This change forms part of the response to a 2016 Government consultation on delivering more frequent rating revaluations. But unless there is some wider, and genuine, reform of the business rates system, altering the date of the revaluation will simply bring forward, but at a slightly earlier date, the fundamental problems of the rating system - which are too high a level of tax and too much complexity. Is the proposal to change the date of the revaluation simply rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic? ...Read More

The Supreme Court has determined that a specialised air handling system installed by Iceland, the frozen foods retailer, at its stores is not a rateable item of plant and machinery. The air handling system was plant and machinery "used in connection with services mainly or exclusively as part of manufacturing operations or trade processes" and was therefore to be ignored when valuing the property for rating purposes. Retailers and other occupiers will look carefully at specialist items of plant and machinery, where these are included in rating valuations, in the light of this decision. ...Read More

The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has dismissed an appeal made by the ratepayer of a dilapidated workshop in south London and confirmed that the assessment of the workshop should be Rateable Value £9,750 because, on a proper analysis, the repairs required to the property were ones that a reasonable landlord would consider economic and the property therefore had to be valued in an assumed reasonable state of repair. ...Read More