Mr Colm McAteer (Appellant) and The Commissioner of Valuation for Northern Ireland (Respondent)
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Judge | Mr Leonard |
| Judgment Date | 20 December 2022 |
| Neutral Citation | NIVT 9/20 |
| Date | 20 December 2022 |
| Court | Valuation Tribunal (NI) |
1
NORTHERN IRELAND VALUATION TRIBUNAL
THE RATES (NORTHERN IRELAND) ORDER 1977 (AS AMENDED)
AND THE
VALUATION TRIBUNAL RULES (NORTHERN IRELAND) 2007 (AS
AMENDED)
CASE REFERENCE NUMBER: NIVT 9/20
COLM MARK McATEER – APPELLANT
AND
THE COMMISSIONER OF VALUATION – RESPONDENT
Northern Ireland Valuation Tribunal
Chairman: Mr James Leonard, President
Members: Mr C Kenton FRICS & Mrs N Wright
Hearing: 27 September 2022, Belfast
DECISION
The unanimous decision of the tribunal is that the appellant’s appeal succeeds for
the reasons stated and the tribunal Orders that the property identified in this decision
shall be removed from the Valuation List.
REASONS
Introduction
1. This appeal consists of a reference under Article 54 of the Rates (Northern
Ireland) Order 1977, as amended ("the 1977 Order"). The appellant, by Notice
of Appeal (Form 3) appealed against the decision of the Commissioner of
Valuation in a Valuation Certificate in respect of the Capital Valuation of a
stated hereditament.
2
The Background to the Matter and the Hearing
2. This appeal has had a regrettably lengthy history due, in no small part, to the
appellant exercising his entitlement - quite properly and which he is perfectly
entitled to do - to present detailed arguments and submissions, including
some well-rehearsed and presented submissions concerning the law. The
tribunal regrets the delay in bringing the matter to a conclusion, including
between the conclusion of the oral hearing and the promulgation of this
decision which latter was caused, firstly, on account of the request for the
respondent to be afforded further time to take legal advice at the conclusion of
the oral hearing and also on account of the subject matter and the detailed
nature of the submissions, including a range of legal authorities, and the
comprehensive range of issues requiring to be considered and determined.
Arising from all of this, however, the tribunal has been afforded a welcome
opportunity to consider in detail and to make some observations upon the
current state of the law as it bears upon cases of this nature. Whilst the facts
of this case are quite specific, nonetheless the tribunal hopes that some
broader principles may be extracted from the tribunal’s decision-making in this
case which might be of application and relevance to other cases touching
upon areas of the law in this jurisdiction.
3. It might be useful at this point to set out the history of the case, most of which
history is undisputed. However, there are certain core or central matters which
are fundamentally in dispute between the parties to this appeal and the
tribunal’s task, amongst other matters, is to resolve these specific disputed
issues in making a determination.
4. The background to the matter is that the appellant, Mr McAteer, who in his
appeal states his residence as being “C/O 1 Windmill Road, Newry BT34
2QW”, lodged a Form of Appeal (Form 3) with the Valuation Tribunal. That
appeal was received on 9 November 2020. In the appeal, Mr McAteer
indicates that he is appealing against a Notice of Decision dated 5 November
2020 in respect of a property with the address: “3 Windmill Road
(Ballynacraig), Newry, Co Down BT34 2QW”. This latter shall be referred to in
this determination as being “the property”. Mr McAteer in his appeal contends
that the Capital Value of the property, instead of the ascribed figure of
£105,000, ought to be “nil”. The appeal form as received sets forth grounds of
appeal which grounds comprise some additional 2 ½ pages of typescript. As
the case has proceeded, Mr McAteer has added to the foregoing by virtue of
some detailed written submissions presented to the tribunal which contain a
number of references to case law, submitted to be relevant. Mr McAteer has
helpfully submitted copies of some case law authorities to which he wishes to
refer, together with certain other written materials, including some statutory
provisions contended by him to be relevant to the issues. The case has been
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