The Latest Rating System “Blockage”

Clients have now started to receive versions of this letter.

This follows on from the Supreme Court decision in Woolway vs. Mazars where the Court determined that the second and sixth floors could not be assessed together. The judges also observed that adjacent floors should also be separately assessed unless they accessed each other without going into common parts (lifts / stairs etc). This causes potential issues at any “shared” premises, particularly offices, where the problem can apply to anyone who has let out a small amount of surplus space as well as truly multi-occupied buildings.

Anyone receiving correspondence like this should contact us for advice.

Smaller assessments will often have a higher aggregate Rateable Value than a larger single assessment, with obvious liability implications. This will encourage Local Authorities to actively seek out situations as “revenue raisers”. There will also be implication for numbers of appeals and the resources the VOA will be able to allocate purely for appeal resolution.