[2024] UKUT 232 (LC)

Fecha: 22-Ago-2024

Conclusions

Conclusion and determination

71.

Having reached a conclusion on the various items where the parties were unable to come to a consensus and splitting the minor differences on the items of working expenses where the parties were in dispute, the resultant valuation is as follows:

72.

The outcome is higher than the list assessment of rateable value £100,000 and that would continue to be the case if I were to adopt Mr Davies’s approach of allowing for a manager at £50,000 per annum. A comparison of the current assessment and the adopted FMT produces a figure of 7.54% which is higher than all the comparables although not by a sizable margin. I do not draw any conclusions from that figure. However, I do note that for the four properties where I have details of the net profit, a comparison of the net profit (in my calculation) to FMT, the farm is significantly higher:

Whitehouse Farm Centre 13.65%

Longdown Activity Farm 7.27%

The Big Sheep 21.65%

Finkley Down Farm 29.19%

On the basis of that limited comparison the fact that the farm has the highest rateable value to FMT ratio is perhaps not surprising. I conclude that for the purposes of the 2017 List, the farm is under assessed and the appeal is therefore dismissed.

Mark Higgin FRICS FIRRV

22 August 2024

Right of appeal

Any party has a right of appeal to the Court of Appeal on any point of law arising from this decision. The right of appeal may be exercised only with permission. An application for permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal must be sent or delivered to the Tribunal so that it is received within 1 month after the date on which this decision is sent to the parties (unless an application for costs is made within 14 days of the decision being sent to the parties, in which case an application for permission to appeal must be made within 1 month of the date on which the Tribunal’s decision on costs is sent to the parties). An application for permission to appeal must identify the decision of the Tribunal to which it relates, identify the alleged error or errors of law in the decision, and state the result the party making the application is seeking. If the Tribunal refuses permission to appeal a further application may then be made to the Court of Appeal for permission.