Who is liable for business rates if the lease of property is disclaimed by the tenant’s liquidator? The choice is between no one and the landlord. For many years local authorities have opted for the latter, although there has always been doubt as to whether a landlord is in fact liable in such circumstances. In…
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The case related to four warehouse properties entered into the 2005 rating list following their practical completion but before occupation or fitting out, and was a lead case for 60 similar disputes over whether new-build property can be assessed for rates purposes if it is not yet ready for occupation. Its immediate impact is that…
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Roger Hannah & Co is pleased to announce the setting up of a new service to help their clients with empty property rates. In the first 3 months from launching our new service we have secured savings for clients in excess of £100,000 on their empty property rates liabilities. Roger Hannah & Co can develop…
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The High Court has allowed an appeal by a charity against an order to pay business rates in excess of £1,600,000. Charities are entitled to mandatory business rates relief if a property they occupy is used wholly or mainly for charitable purposes. In this case the charity had taken a lease on two warehouse units…
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A Court of Appeal has upheld the finding of the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) that non-adjoining floors in the same building, occupied by the same business, can be treated as a single hereditament for rating purposes. The three Lord Justices of Appeal unanimously confirmed in a Upper Tribunals decision based on a common sense assessment…
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Business rates are a large part of the cost of occupying any property and there are many examples of business’ that have run into financial difficulty because of these high charges. Business rates are assessed by the Valuation Office Agency and are collected by the local authority. The calculation is based on your properties rental…
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The Local Government Finance Act 2012 creates a new model for funding local authorities from April 2013, linking their financial revenue to the decisions they take to support local firms and local jobs. Local authorities across the country will retain a 50% local share of the business rates they collect and then keep a 50%…
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The Government’s proposals to cancel the 2015 rates revaluation will see many small struggling businesses forced to pay taxes against 2008 valuations, made near the peak of the property boom. This decision was meant to go unnoticed, slipped in without warning and without consultation, and to rub salt into the wound Ministers, somewhat unconvincingly, claim…
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The Estates Gazette has revealed that the government could review empty property rates legislation after a freedom of information request showed that the government was spending more than £50 million in tax per year on its own vacant properties, an amount which is expected to rise to £70 million for the current year 2012-2013. The…
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