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The forgotten ingredient of rateable occupation
Cain Ormondroyd IRRV (Hons) Barrister, Francis Taylor Building
@CainOrm
Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation www.irrv.org.uk [email protected]
Rateable occupation
• Actual • Beneficial • Exclusive • …
Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation www.irrv.org.uk [email protected]
Rateable occupation
• Actual • Beneficial • Exclusive • Permanent or non-transient
Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation www.irrv.org.uk [email protected]
The forgotten ingredient?
(1) Context of the cases: liability vs rateability
(2) What is permanence? What
factors are relevant? (3) Permanence as the
forgotten ingredient
Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation www.irrv.org.uk [email protected]
Rateability/liability
The orthodox view “The concept of the hereditament for rating purposes is inextricably bound up with the concept of rateable occupation” Ryde at [C113] The challenge Sedley LJ in Vtesse Networks Ltd v Bradford (VO) [2006] EWCA Civ 1339 at [40]
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What is permanence? (1)
• Not about duration alone – there is no ‘rule of thumb’ that 12 months is required (Robert McAlpine v Payne [1969] RA 368 overruled by Dick Hampton v Lewis [1975] RA 269) • Nature of occupation also relevant (Roskill LJ in Dick Hampton considered “the period of occupation as of vastly less importance than its quality and consequences”)
Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation www.irrv.org.uk [email protected]
What is permanence? (2)
• Predicted length of occupation 2 cases on parking spaces: Renore Ltd v Hounslow LBC [1970] RA 567 “the expectation must have been that the ratepayers would continue in possession of these three spaces indefinitely” (at p574)) West Yorkshire MCC v Miller (VO) [1984] RA 65 “no long term arrangements to continue [the occupation] year by year” (p71).
Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation www.irrv.org.uk [email protected]
What is permanence? (3)
• The nature of the agreement Two cases about the same fairground operator Liverpool Corporation v Huyton-with-Roby Urban District Council (1964) 10 RRC 256: lease for a fortnight a year, therefore too transient. Hall v Darwen Corporation (1958) 2 RRC 329: longer term agreement may have contributed to a finding of permanence.
Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation www.irrv.org.uk [email protected]
What is permanence? (4)
• The nature of the thing occupied?
“It is I think clear that for permanent buildings there is no fixed period: theoretically at any rate occupation of a house or a shop for even a day could attract rateability. But the authorities I think show clearly that different considerations apply to temporary structures…”
Michael Rowe QC in Sir Robert McAlpine
Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation www.irrv.org.uk [email protected]
What is permanence? (4)
• The nature of the thing occupied?
“It is I think clear that for permanent buildings there is no fixed period: theoretically at any rate occupation of a house or a shop for even a day could attract rateability. But the authorities I think show clearly that different considerations apply to temporary structures”
Michael Rowe QC in Sir Robert McAlpine
Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation www.irrv.org.uk [email protected]
What is permanence? (4)
• The nature of the thing occupied?
“It is I think clear that for permanent buildings there is no fixed period: theoretically at any rate occupation of a house or a shop for even a day could attract rateability. But the authorities I think show clearly that different considerations apply to temporary structures”
Michael Rowe QC in Sir Robert McAlpine
Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation www.irrv.org.uk [email protected]
Summary: what is permanence?
Relevant factors: • The length of the occupation; • The nature of the occupation – intensive or passive/insubstantial? • The circumstances of the occupation – intention to continue? • The agreement under which occupation took place – long term or intermittent? • The nature of the thing being occupied – permanent building?
Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation www.irrv.org.uk [email protected]
A different view…
“the word ‘permanence’ appears to signify continuous, as opposed to intermittent, physical possession of the soil; it does not signify that an occupation, in order to be rateable, must be for a long term”
Ryde at [C1113]
Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation www.irrv.org.uk [email protected]
The forgotten ingredient
Makro Properties v Nuneaton and Bedworth BC [2012] EWHC 2250 (Admin)
• MPL leases warehouse to MSSWL; lease ends
• MSSWL stores 16 pallets of paperwork (0.2% floospace);
• Pallets removed after 43 days; • Period of occupation intentional and
repeated; • No written agreement between MPL
and MSSWL.
Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation www.irrv.org.uk [email protected]
The forgotten ingredient
Makro Properties v Nuneaton and Bedworth BC [2012] EWHC 2250 (Admin) Permanence?
Factor Present?
Dura%on
Intensive/substan%al
Inten%on to con%nue
Long term agreement
Permanent building
Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation www.irrv.org.uk [email protected]
The forgotten ingredient
Makro Properties v Nuneaton and Bedworth BC [2012] EWHC 2250 (Admin) Permanence?
Factor Present?
Dura%on ?
Intensive/substan%al
Inten%on to con%nue
Long term agreement
Permanent building
Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation www.irrv.org.uk [email protected]
The forgotten ingredient
Makro Properties v Nuneaton and Bedworth BC [2012] EWHC 2250 (Admin) Permanence?
Factor Present?
Dura%on ?
Intensive/substan%al û
Inten%on to con%nue
Long term agreement
Permanent building
Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation www.irrv.org.uk [email protected]
The forgotten ingredient
Makro Properties v Nuneaton and Bedworth BC [2012] EWHC 2250 (Admin) Permanence?
Factor Present?
Dura%on ?
Intensive/substan%al û
Inten%on to con%nue û
Long term agreement
Permanent building
Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation www.irrv.org.uk [email protected]
The forgotten ingredient
Makro Properties v Nuneaton and Bedworth BC [2012] EWHC 2250 (Admin) Permanence?
Factor Present?
Dura%on ?
Intensive/substan%al û
Inten%on to con%nue û
Long term agreement û
Permanent building
Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation www.irrv.org.uk [email protected]
The forgotten ingredient
Makro Properties v Nuneaton and Bedworth BC [2012] EWHC 2250 (Admin) Permanence?
Factor Present?
Dura%on ?
Intensive/substan%al û
Inten%on to con%nue û
Long term agreement û
Permanent building ü
Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation www.irrv.org.uk [email protected]
The forgotten ingredient
Sunderland v Stirling Investments [2013] EWHC 1413 (Admin)
• Empty warehouse used by CMML for Bluetooth box;
• The box 95 × 65 × 30 mm, battery 350 x 240 mm, aerial draped out of a window;
• Present for exactly six weeks; • CMML lease for 43 days.
Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation www.irrv.org.uk [email protected]
The forgotten ingredient
Sunderland v Stirling Investments [2013] EWHC 1413 (Admin) Permanence?
Factor Present?
Dura%on ?
Intensive/substan%al û
Inten%on to con%nue û
Long term agreement û
Permanent building ü
Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation www.irrv.org.uk [email protected]
The forgotten ingredient
The VOA view… A site in an empty property will form a separate hereditament if it fulfils the criteria necessary to become a separately rateable hereditament. It is a common characteristic that sites are occupied for short, or transient, periods. When occupation exceeds 12 months the site becomes a separately rateable hereditament to the “host” property. The site is a new hereditament and should not be a split from the host hereditament.
Rating Manual, Section 862: Wifi/Bluetooth Sites in Buildings: Practice Note 2010
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