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Effects upon council tax and business rate liability
1. A detached Edwardian dwelling in a residential
area owned and occupied by a self employed solicitor who practices
from the property, specialising in Matrimonial Law. The front room
on the ground floor is furnished with sofa and comfortable chairs,
has a TV set, and ornaments/photos of a personal nature displayed
around the room. It is used on an occasional basis as a waiting
room for clients during week days, and as the lounge by the occupier
during evenings and weekends.
The former dining room is used as an office equipped with computer,
dedicated fax and telephone line, filing cabinets, desk and shelving
stocked with law books. No domestic use is made of this room. It
is used by a part time secretary when the solicitor is visiting
clients or attending Court.
The ground floor kitchen is used for preparation of family meals,
but also to make tea or coffee for clients. The first floor accommodation
of bedroom and bathroom is wholly used for domestic purposes.
Our
assessment: The office is the only
non-domestic part and will be assessed for business rates . The
principal purpose of the front room is to serve as a lounge. In
this instance, the non domestic use is sufficiently minimal so as
not to warrant assessment for business rates. The lounge and the
remainder of the dwelling will be banded for council tax purposes.
2. An integral garage of an estate house is converted
to an office with plastered walls, electric power points, solid
front, suspended ceiling and floor screed suitable for carpeting.
A separate telephone line has been installed. Access is through
the hallway of the house. All toilet facilities are in the main
house.
The occupier claims that the room is used by the family in the
evenings and occasionally at weekends. During the day the occupier
designs computer software. He is employed by a major company to
work at home, because of a physical disability. All of the equipment
has been provided by his company and is specially adapted for his
needs. He visits his former office on an occasional basis.
Our assessment:
The former garage is no longer domestic property. It has been adapted
for office use and should be assessed for business rates. The remainder
is domestic.
3. The occupier is employed as a site finder by
a major building company, and travels across most of the southern
part of the country, using her home as a base, but calling into
the company office once a week to pick up new instructions, for
meetings, and to leave completed work.
She has a 4 drawer cabinet in the corner of a dining room, which
also functions as an 'office' for the family computer, and there
is no dedicated telephone line for business purposes.
The occupier is out visiting sites 4 days a week, and does 'writing
up' at home on the dining room table in the evenings and at weekends.
No clients or members of the public visit the house for business
purposes.
Our assessment:
The whole of the dwelling is domestic property, and should be banded
for council tax.
4. A doctor uses a room in his house as a consulting
room three days a week. The main practice surgery is situated some
3 miles away near the town centre. The house is more convenient
for patients who live locally.
A concrete ramp has been added to the front door and the door
opening to the hall and the consulting room has been widened to
accommodate a wheelchair. No one in the doctor's family is disabled.
In the room itself there is an examination couch which is essentially
a single bed with a cotton sheet thrown over it. A paper sheet is
added and removed after use by each patient.
There is no office desk as such but there is a computer, table
and chair in a corner of the room, which are used by the doctor
during his consultations.
No patients records are held at the house, nor are there any medicines.
Basic medical equipment is kept in the doctors medical bag or stored
in a drawer after use.
There is planning consent for use as a branch surgery and part
of the front garden has been surfaced to accommodate 2 to 3 extra
private vehicles. There are parking restrictions in the street.
On the walls of the consulting room the doctor has attached pictures
painted by his young children, and there are toys in the corner
of the room which belong to his children but can be played with
by young patients. There is a brass sign outside the front door
to advertise surgery hours.
The remainder of the week the doctor attends surgeries at the
main premises, and in the afternoons he makes house calls. Other
than for consultations the room is often unused, but when friends
come to stay it can be pressed into use as a spare bedroom at weekends,
and some evenings the doctor uses the room to read professional
papers or watch a portable TV away from the children.
Our assessment: The principal use of this room
is as a doctor's surgery, and occasional use for domestic purposes
is minor. The room should be separately assessed for business rates,
and the remainder of the dwelling banded for council tax.
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