The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has allowed an appeal by the ratepayer of a retail unit in Upper Street, Islington. The Tribunal determined that the Zone A value for the unit should be reduced from £2,100 per square metre to £1,800 per square metre and that a 5% allowance should be made to reflect the irregular shape of the unit. ...Read More

The Rating (Coronavirus) and Directors Disqualification (Dissolved Companies) Act 2021 received the Royal Assent on 15 December 2021. The non-domestic rating section of this Act is enacted to provide that matters attributable to coronavirus that may not be taken account of in determining rateable values for the current rating lists. The purpose of the Act is effectively to quash appeals made against current rateable values for the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the restrictions associated with the pandemic. The non-domestic rating section of the Act relates to both England and Wales and has retrospective, as well as current, effect. ...Read More

The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has found that Completion Notices, served by a local authority to deem a property complete for the purposes of charging empty rates, were invalid in circumstances where the completion date set by the notices was before the date of service of the notice. Because the effect of the notice was to create a liability for tax on a counter-factual basis, this required strict compliance with the regulations, rather than simply “substantial compliance”. This decision will be of interest to local authorities, who serve completion notices, and to the owners of ne, unoccupied, buildings, on whom these notices are served. ...Read More

The Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities and HM Treasury have issued a “technical consultation” which sets out how the government intends to give effect to measures arising from the business rates review, the conclusions of which were reported at the Autumn 2021 Budget. The technical consultation covers measures designed to enable more frequent revaluations, together with proposed measures for new rates relief, firstly, for property “improvements” and secondly for investment in green plant and machinery. The changes proposed in the consultation will place significant new burdens on ratepayers, by way of requirements to report changes to properties or to property tenure, and will also impose new restrictions on ratepayer’s rights of appeal. The consultation package contains some measures that will be welcome to ratepayers, but also many that will not. ...Read More

The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has determined an appeal concerning rateable occupation of data halls at a computer centre. The issue in the appeal in Ricketts (VO) v Cyxtera Technology UK Ltd was whether “white space” in the data halls formed part of the hereditament by virtue of being capable of beneficial occupation for its intended purpose. The Tribunal’s determination was that the space did, indeed, form part of the hereditament, but that it must be complete and capable of operation in order to form part of the hereditament. The Tribunal’s decision will be significant for owners and occupiers of new buildings of this type, and for Valuation Officers faced with the task of bringing new buildings into the rating list. ...Read More