The Supreme Court will give judgment next Wednesday (29 July) in an important case concerning the unit of assessment for rating purposes when single tenants occupy more than one floor in a building.
Lords Neuberger, Sumption, Carnwath, Toulson and Gill will decide whether non-domestic premises on the 2nd and 6th floors of an office building constitute one or more than one hereditament for the purposes of the rating list.
The case concerns offices on the second and sixth floors in Tower Bridge House, St Katherine’s Way, London E1W, both occupied by accountant Mazars.
Mazars triumphed in the Upper Tribunal and the Court of Appeal in its claim that they should be assessed as a single hereditament for ratings purposes, with a rateable value of just over £1m.
However, the valuations officer hopes the Supreme Court will overturn that decision and rule that they should be treated as two separate hereditaments. The VO maintains that each level or floor is a separate unit of property and should be entered as a separate hereditament.
Granting permission to appeal in his initial Upper Tribunal decision, the President George Bartlett QC said: “The question of the identification of hereditaments in a modern office block is of wide importance.”
Woolway v Mazars Supreme Court (Lords Neuberger, Sumption, Carnwath, Toulson and Gill)
