Partner Article

Supreme Court landmark Rating decision

Supreme Court landmark Rating decision The Supreme Court has determined that buildings which are undergoing development works should be entitled to have their rating assessments reduced. In essence the Court recently: • Overturned the Valuation Officers (VO) approach to buildings been developed and stated that the VO should first look objectively at what is actually happening to the building. • If the building is in the process of redevelopment and is no longer capable of beneficial occupation then the rateable value will be reduced to a nominal level. • The VO will no longer be able to assume the property has been put back into repair as the courts have ruled that this part of the legislation will not apply in such circumstances. “We recognised how important this case was to our clients and we are proud to be one of the co-funders of the Rating Surveyors Association intervention into this case. The word ‘Landmark’ is often used but in this case it is truly appropriate. It is important that any business who has been subject to the Valuation Officers erroneous approach to buildings undergoing development works over the last six years, immediately contacts their advisers as time will be short if there is any scope to rectify their loss,” says Keith Cooney, National Head of Business Rates Service Line, Knight Frank. The decision overturns the previous determination in the Court of Appeal which found in favour of the Valuation Officers practice of refusing to reduce the rateable value for buildings underdoing development works unless they conformed with their narrow interpretation of the legislation. This resulted in the majority of developers paying full rates on buildings which were incapable of beneficial use. ENDS

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Knight Frank .