[2024] UKUT 204 (LC)

This is a 2017 rating list appeal from the decision of the Valuation Tribunal for England that Unit 1 Slater Court, Peterborough PE7 (“the Unit”) is a single hereditament for the purposes of non-domestic rating. The appellant Ms Zhylzhaxynova says that it comprises two separate hereditaments occupied by two different companies. The Unit was originally assessed at rateable value £18,750 with effect from 21 January 2021 and was subsequently reduced to rateable value £16,250, effective from the same date.

At the hearing the appellant was represented by her husband, Mr Richard Dumare, and the respondent by Mr Michael Ripley of counsel, and we are grateful to them both. We visited the Unit the day before the hearing and are grateful to Mr Dumare, Ms Zhylzhaxynova and their very small children for showing us round.

Ms Zhylzhaxynova is not the ratepayer; business rates are paid by Quality and Price Limited (“QPL”) which holds a ten-year lease of the Unit from 21 January 2021. Ms Zhylzhaxynova is the director and sole or majority shareholder both of QPL and of QNP Toys Ltd (“QNP Toys”), the company that uses the warehouse within the Unit (now known as iProActive Products Ltd). It was not explained to us why Ms Zhylzhaxynova was the applicant to the VTE rather than QPL, although we think that that reflects her view, and that of Mr Dumare, that in fact she is the occupier of the Unit and is in control of it; at any rate, the respondent did not take any point about her participation in the proceedings.

In the paragraphs that follow we first describe the Unit and set out the evidence about it, then explain the relevant law, and lastly set out the arguments in the appeal and our conclusion.