The decision of the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) in BNPPDS Limited v Ricketts (VO) gives important guidance on the valuation for rating purposes of properties valued on the receipts and expenditure basis. The case concerned a car park at Putney Exchange shopping centre, but the guidance given by the Upper Tribunal has wider significance. ...Read More

The current non-domestic rating lists have been in force since 1 April 2017 but will be replaced by new rating lists from 1 April 2023. In England, appeals against the 2017 rating lists have to be made under the “check, challenge, appeal” (CCA) process. The regulations introducing CCA removed the previous time limits for making appeals, but, with the end of the rating lists now in sight, the Government has introduced regulations that will set new time limits for ratepayers and their advisers to make appeals against 2017 rating list entries. ...Read More

The third budget of 2022, the Autumn Statement delivered by the Chancellor on 17 November 2022, has given business ratepayers the data they require to enable them to calculate their business rates liabilities for next year. The Chancellor has frozen the uniform business rate multiplier in England for next year, at its current levels of 49.9p for “small” properties and 51.2p for larger properties. He has also announced details of a new scheme of transitional adjustments to apply from 1 April 2023, following the rating revaluation which will take effect from that date. To complete the picture, the Valuation Office Agency, part of HM Revenue and Customs, has published draft lists of rateable values to take effect from 1 April 2023. The Autumn Statement announcement also contained details of new rates reliefs to take effect next year. Taken together, these announcements allow ratepayers to calculate next year’s liabilities, in England at least. No doubt similar announcements will follow soon from the devolved government in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. ...Read More

The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has determined that a factory building and a warehouse building on sites separated by a public highway, but linked by a substantial conveyor bridge form a single hereditament for rating purposes. The Tribunal’s decision applied the geographical test set out by the Supreme Court in Woolway (VO) v Mazars [2015] and concluded that the three elements of property occupied by the ratepayer, the factory, the warehouse, and the conveyor bridge, should realistically be regarded as a single unit of property. The Tribunal’s decision also dealt with the issue of valuation arising from the finding that these elements formed a single hereditament, and applied an end allowance of 7.5% to reflect the split nature of the site. ...Read More

The High Court has found that licences made in respect of two properties in Cardiff were sham transactions, designed to avoid a liability for empty rates, rather than being made with the intention of being implemented. The Court also found that, in both cases, the landlord of the property concerned was in rateable occupation, and was liable for empty rates, rather than the alleged licencee. The decision in Queen Street Properties Ltd and Another v Cardiff City Council [2022] is the latest in a growing line of cases disputing the effectiveness of different empty rates mitigation strategies. In these latest cases, the company that purported to be the ratepayer was dissolved, but the District Judge, and the High Court on appeal, found that in both cases the landlord company was in rateable occupation. ...Read More