[2024] UKUT 356 (LC)

This appeal has its origins in a ‘Check’ submitted by the appellant’s representative, Mr James Winbourne MRICS of Winbourne Martin French. The ‘Check’ submission was made on 8 September 2020 and stated that the Property was incapable of beneficial occupation and had been vacated on 27 March 2020 due to flooding and drainage problems. The Property had a 2017 rating list assessment of rateable value £372,500 effective from 1 October 2018 and the submission proposed that it should be taken out of the list from the date of vacation; presumably as an alternative to that course it also sought an assessment of the rateable value as £1 and a description of the Property as a ‘building undergoing construction/repair’.

Mr Winbourne’s ‘Challenge’ submission of 19 March 2021 took a slightly different approach and suggested there had been a material change of circumstances namely that ‘the property is incapable of benefitable occupation as a consequence of an inherent defect manifested by flooding, raw sewage and infestation, mould’. The Valuation Officer did not agree and confirmed the rating list entry by a decision issued on 22 February 2022.

By its decision of 24 October 2023, the Valuation Tribunal for England dismissed the appellant’s appeal against the valuation officer’s decision, and it is against that dismissal that this appeal is brought.