Case

Ealing Council v Notting Hill Housing Trust [2015] EWHC(Admin) 161

In three appeals heard together, the High Court held that the Valuation Tribunal for England rightly broke down the words of the exemption set out in the Council Tax (Exempt Dwellings) Order 1992, art 3, class B, into four conditions or requirements namely: (I) the dwelling must be owned by the body in question; and (ii) the body must be established for charitable purposes only; and (iii) the dwelling must have been unoccupied for a period of less than six months; and (iv) the last occupation must have been in furtherance of the objects of the charity, but he law required that proof be supplied of each of these elements and the VTE fell into error in holding that in relation to charitable social housing providers there was a presumption that conditions (ii) and (iv) were satisfied with a consequential reversal of the normal burden of proof, but in two of the three appeals the evidence was just sufficient to establish that the exemption applied.

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