Assessor Tayside Joint Valuation Board Against A Decision Of The Valuation Appeal Committee For Perth And Kinross
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judge | Lord Doherty,Lord Brodie,Lord Justice Clerk |
| Neutral Citation | [2017] CSIH 64 |
| Date | 17 October 2017 |
| Docket Number | XA22/17 |
| Court | Court of Session |
| Published date | 17 October 2017 |
SECOND DIVISION, INNER HOUSE, COURT OF SESSION
[2017] CSIH 64
XA22/17
Lord Justice Clerk
Lord Brodie
Lord Doherty
OPINION OF THE COURT
delivered by LORD DOHERTY
in the Appeal
by
ASSESSOR, TAYSIDE JOINT VALUATION BOARD
Appellant
against
A DECISION OF THE VALUATION APPEAL COMMITTEE FOR PERTH AND KINROSS
COMMUNICATED TO THE APPELLANT ON 9 FEBRUARY 2017
Appellant: Stuart, QC; Clyde & Co (Scotland) LLP
17 October 2017
Introduction
[1] M purchased her house at Birchcroft, 9 Orchil Crescent, Auchterarder in February
2007. She lived there until July 2015. The house had very significant problems with
dampness. After she vacated the house she arranged for repair and improvement work to
be carried out, part of which was to address the problem of dampness. Stripping out work
commenced in January 2016. Installation of new flooring, replacement windows, partition
2
walls and other replacement or improvement work began in July 2016. While the works
were ongoing it seems that M also decided to convert the house’s garage into additional
living accommodation.
[2] The subjects have been entered in the council tax valuation list as a dwelling since
the list was first prepared in 1993. In August 2016 M made a proposal to the appellant that
the subjects be deleted from the list with effect from 1 January 2016, on the basis that on that
date they had ceased to be a dwelling. The appellant inspected the subjects in August 2016
at which time, while the strip out and some of the repairs and other work had been carried
out, a good deal remained to be done. Since the appellant did not accept that the subjects
had ceased to be a dwelling, he referred the disagreement between him and M as an appeal
to the local Valuation Appeal Committee (reg 15(1) of the Council Tax (Alteration of Lists
and Appeals) (Scotland) Regulations 1993 (SI 1993/355) (“the 1993 Regulations”)).
[3] The Valuation Appeal Committee for Perth and Kinross heard the appeal on
26 January 2017. M represented herself before the Committee. The appellant was
represented by Mr Stuart. The Committee allowed the appeal and directed the appellant to
delete the subjects from the valuation list with effect from 1 January 2016. Its statement of
reasons made brief reference to the evidence and to the submissions made to it, before
setting out its decision and reasons. The crux of its reasoning was as follows:
“The Assessor cited the Macleod case (Assessor for Highland and Western Isles Valuation
Joint Board v Ewan Macleod 2001 SC 476). There were significant differences from this
Appeal. In the Macleod case, the property was vacant as a result of the death of the
owner, who had lived in the property prior to his demise. The subsequent owner
did not occupy the property. In arriving at its judgement, the Court noted that other
houses in this condition continued to be lived in in certain areas of the Highlands’.
In the present case, the condition of the Appeal Subjects made (sic) incapable of
habitation, not just unsuitable for habitation. As a result the Appeal Subjects lost the
characteristics of a dwelling.”
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