Barrs Residential & Leisure Ltd v Pleass Thomson & Co [2020] WTLR 759

Autumn 2020 #180

The deceased was the owner and occupier of a mobile home situated on a site owned by the appellant. The site was a ‘protected site’ under the Mobile Homes Act 1983, s1 and the deceased had the benefit of a pitch agreement dated 25 November 2005, to which the Act applied. The agreement, together with the statutory controls incorporated by the Act, provided for limited rights of alienation, subject to the payment of commission to the site owner.

Sections 3(3) and (4) of the Act provide that:

  1. ‘(3) Where a...

Foster v HMRC [2020] WTLR 145

Spring 2020 #178

Susan Elizabeth Foster (“Deceased”) owned 6.39 acres of agricultural land at Wolverhampton Road, Shifnal, Shropshire (“Site”). In March 2004 she entered into a joint venture agreement (“JVA”) with a developer who already owned adjoining land known as the Uplands just outside the defined development boundary of Shifnal. The site, which was located outside the boundary as defined in the local plan proposals map, was shown as “safeguarded land” (i.e. land removed from the green belt and identified as having the potential to meet future development needs beyond the plan period). The Deceased...

King & anr v The Benefice of Newburn in the Diocese of Newcastle & anr [2019] WTLR 905

Autumn 2019 #176

The Appellants were the descendants of Edward Collingwood, who had conveyed a church and churchyard, for use as a chapel of ease for the parish of Newburn, to the Church Building Commissioners on 1 October 1837 (‘Conveyance’). As originally constructed, the church contained a burial vault or sepulchre lying below the central aisle of the nave. This had been expressly excepted and reserved to the grantor ‘… with full power for [the grantor and his heirs and assigns] to open such vault as aforesaid and use and repair the same at all reasonable times…’. The church had been closed for regula...

Palliser v HMRC [2018] WTLR 287

Spring 2018 #171

The appellant, Mr Palliser, disputed the valuation, for inheritance tax purposes, of a property in which his father’s estate owned an 88.4% share in the long leasehold and a third of the freehold title of the building it which it is located. HMRC had determined that the market value of the estate’s share at the date of the deceased’s death was £1,829,880. This determination was subsequently upheld; Mr Palliser appealed against those decisions, and submitted that the correct valuation should be £1,113,840.

The principal matter in issue was the correct interpretation of s.160 of...

Hatton v HMRC [2010] UKUT 195 (LC)

January/February 2017 #166

The appellant appealed against a determination by HMRC under s221 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 that the value of a freehold interest held by the deceased in a property was £475,000 on the date of death. The appellant (the executor of the deceased’s will) contended that the value was £400,000. The appellant relied on the principal of an estate agents and valuer who based his valuation on his local knowledge of property in the area, his 25 years’ experience and two comparables. HMRC relied upon the evidence of a senior valuer attached to the Valuation Offic...

Oates & anr v HMRC [2014] UKUT 0409 (LC)

January/February 2015 #146

Mr and Mrs Oates (the appellants) were taxpayers who had sold their home together with a substantial piece of scrub land with development potential for £725,000. The gain on the sale of the appellants’ home and garden was exempt under s222 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 (TCGA) but capital gains tax was payable on the land. Section 52(4) TCGA required the apportionment between the value of the land and the house to be on a ‘just and reasonable basis’ however no method is laid down in the legislation to assess this.

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