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Chapter IHTM24052

Document Cited authorities 1 Cited in Related
Vincent
Published date20 March 2016
Record NumberIHTM24052
CourtHM Revenue & Customs

It is not a question of ‘how many factors have to be failed’ in any given case before a house is judged not to be of a character appropriate to the property n. It is necessary to consider all the various factors about the house and the land and come to a judgement.

Not all the factors listed at IHTM24051 will be relevant in every case and additional and different factors might be considered relevant in some cases. No one factor alone will determine the outcome and whilst some may be more relevant than others in a particular case, it is not possible to give formulaic guidelines. To make sure that we are as consistent as possible in our approach any case where you have doubts about whether the provisions of IHTA1984/S115 (2) are met or where the VOA expresses any concerns on the matter should be referred to Technical.

Examples of some common situations where the character appropriate test may be relevant are detailed below. The examples also contain details of the caseworker investigation that may be required in such cases.

  • There is a large farmhouse and/or only a small area of agricultural land. In such cases, as well as asking the District Valuer to consider if an interim agricultural report is appropriate, that is, if there is any question at all that the farmhouse is not of a character appropriate to the land, caseworkers should ask the parties to send in any photographs of the farmhouse that exist. The point of getting any available photographs is to see if the property passes the ‘elephant test’ that is, does it look like a farmhouse? This will assist Technical in reaching a decision once the interim report (IHTM24164) has been received.
  • All, or the majority of the land in the estate has been let away (IHTM24163). The caseworker must consider whether the house is a ‘farmhouse’ at all. Was it a ’dwelling for the farmer from which the farm is managed’ (Rosser v IRC SpC 368 [2003]) and if so, whether it was occupied for the purposes of agriculture (IHTM24060). Caseworkers must obtain full details of the terms of the tenancies under which the land was let, before referring the papers to the District Valuer for them to consider whether or not an...

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