AVIVA INVESTORS PROPERTY DEVELOPMENTS LTD PPG SOUTHERN LIMITED v MARGARET WHITBY (Valuation Officer) ADRIAN MILLS (Valuation Officer)
Decision date: 4 September 2013
Neutral citation: [2013] UKUT 430 (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 whether four speculatively built warehouses were "ready for occupation" on the material dates and therefore hereditaments liable to appear in the rating list without completion notices. The Tribunal found the units had reached practical completion but lacked essential features (warehouse lighting and small power distribution; Unit 11 also lacked a gas connection) and so were not ready for occupation for their designed purpose. The appeals were allowed and the entries were deleted from the rating list; respondents were ordered to pay the appellants' costs on the standard basis with specified interim payments.
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
A building is a hereditament only if, on the material day, it is ready for occupation judged by reference to the purpose for which it was designed; where features that will form part of the occupied hereditament are absent at that date the building is not a hereditament in the absence of a completion notice. Evidence of atypical or short-term occupations without customary fit-out is weak and should be treated with caution in assessing whether such features are essential.
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 observed that the completion notice procedure, if used by billing authorities when buildings reach practical completion, would avoid disputes of this kind. The judgment also preferred the contemporaneous assessments of experienced valuers that warehouse lighting was essential over later changed views supported by limited comparables.