Shynar Zhylzhaxynova v Jo Moore (Valuation Officer)
[2024] UKUT 204 (LC)
Kevin Prosser KC v Andrew Ricketts
4 September 2024
[2024] UKUT 264 (LC)
Upper Tribunal
A group of barristers shared offices. One barrister argued each room should be taxed separately to get tax breaks. The court said the whole building is one unit because they all share ownership and control of the space, even if they use separate rooms.
Key Facts
- •Pump Court Tax Chambers (Chambers) occupies premises at 15-17 Bedford Row and an annex at 15-17 Jockey's Fields.
- •The Jockey's Fields premises were listed as a single hereditament with a rateable value of £152,000.
- •The appellant argued that each barrister's room should be a separate hereditament.
- •The Valuation Officer and the Valuation Tribunal disagreed, maintaining it as a single hereditament.
- •Chambers is not a partnership, and each barrister conducts their own independent business.
- •Members hold a joint beneficial interest in the Jockey's Fields premises under a trust of land.
- •The Chambers' Constitution governs membership, expenses, and the use of premises.
- •The Constitution allows for the sharing of rooms under certain circumstances (parental leave, part-time work).
Legal Principles
Definition of a hereditament
Local Government Finance Act 1988, s.64(1); General Rate Act 1967, s.115(1); Woolway v Mazars [2015] UKSC 53
Rateable occupation requirements (actual, exclusive, valuable, not transient)
John Laing & Sons Ltd v Kingswood Assessment Committee [1949] 1 KB 344
Paramount occupation in cases of concurrent occupation
Holywell Union Assessment Committee v Halkyn District Mines Drainage Co [1895] AC 117; Westminster Council v Southern Railway Company Ltd [1936] AC 511; Cardtronics UK Ltd v Sykes [2020] UKSC 21; Ludgate House Ltd v Ricketts [2020] EWCA Civ 1637
Rateable occupation of unincorporated associations
Verrall v Hackney London Borough Council [1983] QB 445
Relevance of the nature of the title to occupy
Esso Petroleum Co Ltd v Walker [2013] RA 355
Outcomes
Appeal dismissed.
The Jockey's Fields premises are in the joint occupation of all members of Chambers. Individual barristers do not have paramount occupation of their individual rooms due to the joint beneficial interest under the trust of land and the collective control retained by Chambers.
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