STABLES - COUNCIL TAX OR NON-DOMESTIC RATES?

Under existing legislation, stables, together with exercise areas (manèges) are assessed for council tax or non-domestic rates, depending on their use, location and size. Stables can vary from a large-scale livery operation or riding school premises, to a single stable in the back garden.

Stables are not run as a business – are they included in the council tax assessment?

In many cases, stable blocks are riding schools or livery stables, run as businesses. They are therefore classified as non-domestic and will attract non-domestic (business) rates

If commercial stables cease trading and are then used solely for leisure purposes, confusion can arise if the new or the existing owner assumes that the stables will be incorporated into the domestic (council tax) assessment.

Only in certain circumstances will the stables be considered domestic property. If this is the case, the value of the stables will be included within the council tax assessment of the main home.

When considering whether the stables are classed as non-domestic or domestic we take three key factors into account:

• their use
• their proximity and relationship to the living accommodation
• their size

How is a decision reached?

We look at each case individually, taking the three key points listed above into account. This is a complex area, which often raises questions from the public. The examples below give you a guide as to how we reach a decision on different types of cases:

1. A stable yard and ten stables, previously used for livery, are within the immediate boundaries and in close proximity to a former farm house and approached down the same driveway.  They are now used to stable two horses for private leisure use only by the daughters of the owner. The remaining stables are either used for hay and straw storage for the horses, gardening equipment or as domestic type storage.

Answer: The fact that the stables and house share the same curtilage, and the leisure use being connected with the occupation of the main house, will mean the stable yard and stables will be considered as part of the domestic property and will be in the council tax assessment as part of the main house.

2. Using the above example (1), nine of the stables are used and let out for DIY livery.

Answer: The nine stables cannot be said to be occupied together with the house. The stables are let out as a business and will be assessed for non-domestic rates. In this example, only the stable within the curtilage used and occupied privately together with the house would be included in the assessment of the council tax banding of the main house.

3. A former riding stables with 20 stables, a yard together with a manège is now used privately for housing horses, llamas and pet pigs, and is situated outside the immediate garden boundary some distance from the living accommodation and has a separate drive access from the street. The main living accommodation is a small pre-fabricated bungalow.

Answer: The stables will be considered non-domestic, because they do not form a natural unit with the bungalow, are outside the curtilage of the bungalow itself, and cannot be considered ‘appurtenant’ to it. Their size location and character in relation to the main house dictates that they will not qualify as domestic and will be separately assessed for non-domestic rates.

Aren’t stables classed as agricultural and therefore exempt from rates?

Agricultural buildings are exempt from rates; stables, however, can only be classed as agricultural if the horses stabled there are working on agricultural land for an agricultural purpose.

Horses used for leisure purposes - commercially or otherwise - do not fall into this category. Stables housing such animals do not qualify as agricultural buildings, no matter whether they are situated on a farm or not.