Tribunal Decision – MCC Appeals related to the impact of the COVID Pandemic, dismissed.
The subject appeals were based on the following premise ‘We propose a 65% ‘stand back’ abatement to the existing rateable value for our client’s office property to reflect the material changes, their severity and ongoing nature including uncertainty as outlined and evidenced effective from 23 March 2020.’
The Government previously published Rating (Coronavirus) and Directors Disqualification (Dissolved Companies) Act 2021 which partly made provision for matters attributable to coronavirus to not be taken into account when making certain determinations for the purposes of non-domestic rating.
The VOA began to issue notices refusing appeals against the current 2017 list following the publication of the act on 20th December 2021, previously covered https://dunlopheywood.com/voa-latest-harsh-notices-on-mcc-appeals-against-2017-rating-list/
Despite these notices the appellant appealed to the tribunal. The summary decision stated ‘The appeals were dismissed because section 1(4) of the Rating (Coronavirus) and Directors Disqualification (Dissolved Companies) Act 2021 clearly prohibited the Tribunal from giving effect to the proposed reductions or indeed any form of reduction in respect of these appeals. This was because the grounds and the additional evidence upon which the Appellants relied were all either directly or indirectly related to the coronavirus’.
This decision makes it even clearer that any appeals which contain any attributable references to the effects of the pandemic will be dismissed. Whilst this does seem harsh, the Government will argue that the raft of reliefs, grants and exemptions provided throughout were in place to alleviate the financial distress placed upon businesses.
The Ruling can be seen here: Tribunal Decision