Non-Domestic Rates Litigation

Overview

Many of the core concepts in rating (the hereditament, the repairing assumption, rateable occupation) can raise detailed and intricate questions of law. Landmark’s rating team is able to and regularly does advise and represent clients in issues of this nature.

As the oldest tax in continuous existence in the UK, the law of rating has had centuries for its key concepts to develop. The result is that, in dealing with rating problems, there is a vast and subtle body of law which needs to be understood and navigated.

Landmark’s rating team are experts at doing so. Landmark barristers have appeared in many of the most significant cases of recent times, and have played a key role in the continuing evolution of the law of rating. This includes numerous appearances in the leading Supreme Court cases on rating law. Examples of Landmark’s Supreme Court work are:

• Woolway (VO) v Mazars, the leading authority on the identification of the hereditament
• Newbigin (VO) v Monk, which clarified the meaning and operation of the reality principle and the repairing assumption in rating valuation
• Iceland Foods v Berry (VO), which addressed the correct approach to the valuation of plant and machinery in rating
• UKI Kingsway Ltd v Westminster Council, the leading authority on the service of completion notices
• Cardtronics UK Ltd v Sykes (VO), the principal case on the paramountcy principle in identifying the occupier of property
• Nuffield Health v Merton LBC, the leading authority on mandatory charitable relief.

In addition to these cases, Landmark’s practitioners appear regularly in the Court of Appeal, the Lands Chamber of the Upper Tribunal, and the Valuation Tribunal for England, where they are experienced in dealing with any legal issue which may arise in the rating context.