SIMON TURNER AND SARAH TURNER v SIMON TURNER AND SARAH TURNER V ANDREW MURDOCH (VALUATION OFFICER)
Decision date: 25 September 2015
Neutral citation: [2015] UKUT 493 (LC)
Overall AI summary confidence: high
Short overview
This short overview is intended to summarise the case, issues and outcome so far as they are supported by the judgment.
AI confidence in this short overview: high
This appeal concerned the rateable value of the Rock Inn, a first-floor licensed restaurant in Rock, Cornwall, and whether the headline rent in a 19 October 2010 lease could be relied on given a surrender and side-letter concession. The tribunal found the headline letting was tainted by the surrender and not an open-market letting, relied instead on a contemporaneous letting of the adjacent unit (5 Beachside), rejected an unsupported 20% fit-out uplift, and reduced the entry to "restaurant and premises" with a rateable value of £41,000 from 29 November 2010.
Ratio decidendi
This summary is intended to identify the ratio decidendi, meaning the legal reasons for deciding and the binding part of the decision.
AI confidence in this ratio decidendi summary: high
Where a letting arises from a surrender and involves undisclosed concessionary arrangements (here a side letter and landlord fit-out obligations), the headline rent cannot safely be treated as an open-market letting and is unreliable for determining rateable value; a directly comparable, contemporaneous open-market letting of an adjacent, similarly configured hereditament may provide the best basis for valuation in such circumstances.
Obiter dicta
This summary is intended to identify obiter dicta, meaning observations made by the way that were not necessary to deciding the case and are not binding.
AI confidence in this obiter dicta summary: medium
The tribunal indicated that planning designation or a qualified user clause does not determine the mode or category of occupation for rating purposes, and that assessment adjustments (such as a blanket 20% uplift to shell rents for fit-out) require evidential support and should not be applied without justification.