The UK Supreme Court has allowed, in a majority judgment, an appeal by the Valuation Officer against a decision of the Court of Appeal that the rateable value of a large, vacant, office block in Blackpool should be a nominal figure of £1. The three-two majority judgment of the Supreme Court is that the valuation for the building of rateable value £370,000, determined by the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber), should be reinstated. ...Read More

The Court of Appeal has found that empty rates mitigation schemes, based on a “managed insolvency” process were legal and effective. The Court rejected challenges to these schemes made by Rossendale Borough Council and Wigan Council and allowed appeals by the companies organising the schemes. The decision will be welcomed by those owners of vacant buildings who have used these schemes to mitigate their rates liabilities.
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The Parliamentary Treasury Select Committee has launched an inquiry into business rates to scrutinise how Government policy has impacted business. The Committee will examine how business rates policy has changed, including business rates retention, alternatives to property-based taxes, such as the proposed digital services tax, and how changes to business rates could impact businesses.
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The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has reduced the assessment of a retail warehouse in Plymouth, occupied by Go Outdoors, from rateable value £377,500 to rateable value £355,000 on an appeal by the ratepayer against a decision of the Valuation Tribunal for England. In its decision the Upper Tribunal comments again, as it has in a number of recent determinations, on the role of the expert witness. ...Read More

The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has found that it had no jurisdiction to determine a ratepayer's appeal in circumstances where the change that the ratepayer sought to rely upon on appeal fell outside the change described in the ratepayer's original proposal. The decision has important implications for those seeking to make proposal against entries in the rating list. ...Read More

The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has determined that a proposal to alter the rating list was valid, despite containing an error in failing to state the rent paid for the property. Errors of this nature do not automatically mean that a proposal is invalid. The question of validity has to be determined using the ordinary rules of construction and applying them to the facts in each case. ...Read More

The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has found that the risk of future flooding was not a "material change in circumstances" such as to justify a proposal to alter the rating assessment of the property concerned so as to reflect that risk. The appeal concerned a car supermarket at Hessle Dock in Hull, where the last flooding took place in 2013, but the site was subsequently recategorised by the Environment Agency as having a "high risk" of flooding and flood insurance was refused. ...Read More

The Supreme Court has ruled on a long-running dispute relating to the service of a Completion Notice, by Westminster City Council, in respect of a new office building in Kingsway, London. The effect of the notice was to deem the property complete for the purposes of business rates, and thereby to trigger a liability for empty rates. The Supreme Court found that the notice was validly served, despite being handed to a third party not authorised to accept service. The decision in UKI (Kingsway) Limited (Respondent) v Westminster City Council (Appellant) may well have ramifications beyond the field of business rates. ...Read More

The government has now published regulations that will enable ratepayers in England who occupy contiguous properties, but which are treated separately for the purposes of business rates, to seek to have those assessments merged in the 2010 rating list. This is the reversal of the so-called "staircase tax". Those rating lists ended on 31st March 2017, but the new regulations will allow proposals to alter them to be made, in limited circumstances, between 17th December 2018 and 31st December 2019. ...Read More

In 2015, following the tragic crash on its "Smiler" ride, visitor numbers to Alton Towers fell significantly. The ratepayer, Merlin Entertainments, sought a reduction in its rating assessment on the basis that the fall in numbers represented a "material change of circumstances". The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has dismissed the ratepayer's appeal, and its decision offers important guidance on identifying when changes fall within the category of "material changes", justifying an alteration to a rating assessment, and when they do not. ...Read More