In Alam v Valuation Officer (2018) UKUT 266 (LC) Mr Alam is the proprietor of the restaurant.  He took a lease of a Property. His agents submitted a proposal to reduce the rateable value of the Property.  In their proposal they stated correctly that Mr Alam was the occupier of the Property but also stated that the Property was “owner/occupied”.  The proposal was completed in that way because of a misunderstanding between Mr Alam and his agents.  As a result, the agents did not include any information in response to the question “if not owner/occupied, is a rent or licence fee paid?” and, in particular, did not state the rent payable, the date it had first become payable and the date of the next rent review. All of this was information required by Regulation 6(3) of the Non-Domestic Rating (Alteration of Lists and Appeals) (England) Regulations 2009 (“the 2009 Regulations”).  The issue in Mr Alam’s appeal to the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) concerned the consequence of the mis-statement of the capacity in which Mr Alam occupied the Property and the omission of any information about the rent payable.  The Valuation Tribunal for England (“VTE”) found that the proposal was invalid, explaining: Read more »

In Merlin Entertainments Group Ltd v VO (2018) UKUT 406 (LC) the Upper Tribunal was concerned with whether there had been a material change of circumstances under paragraph 2(7)(d) of Schedule 6 to the Local Government Finance Act 1988.  It was held that there had not been such a change. The change (a fall in visitor numbers at Alton Towers following a fatal crash) was not a matter which was “physically manifest” in the locality of the hereditament on the relevant day.

Paragraph 2(7) enacts the physical state and user limbs of the reality principle, in relation to both the hereditament and its locality. Regulation 2(7) sets out the factors to which the reality principle applies. They include, (d), matters affecting the physical state of the locality in which the hereditament is situated or which, though not affecting the physical state of the locality, are nonetheless “physically manifest” there. One of the issues which arose was whether a purely economic matter can fall within paragraph 2(7)(d). Read more »

Liability for non-domestic rates depends on a property being entered as a hereditament in the rating list. Section 46A of and Schedule 4A to the Local Government Finance Act 1988 (“the 1988 Act”) create a completion notice procedure, by which a new building that has not yet been occupied may be brought into the rating list. Where a completion notice has been validly served the building to which it relates is deemed to have been completed on the date specified in the notice. It is then shown in the rating list as a separate hereditament, valued as if it were complete, and its owner or occupier becomes liable to an assessment for non-domestic rates.

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