GP Surgeries: Upper Tribunal Ruling on Business Rates and Premises Valuations

The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) made a ruling earlier this year in Gallagher (VO) V Dr M Read & Partners & Dr J Poyser & Partners that has implications for how business rates are calculated for practices occupying purpose built GP premises. The tribunal examined the way in which purpose built GP surgeries are valued and what kind of valuation methodology should be applied and determined that these should be arrived at using the contractor’s basis of valuation rather than market rent.

The impact of the ruling is that surveyors evaluating purpose built premises must now adopt a valuation methodology which could considerably reduce the valuation of the property for business rates purposes.