Charitable Relief and other Exemptions

Overview

The circumstances in which charities’ occupation of premises can give rise to rates relief are complex: there is an extensive body of relevant case law in both the charity and the rating context, and charitable relief often involves the resolution of difficult questions of fact.

Landmark’s rating team have been and remain at the cutting edge of the case law on mandatory charitable relief. Dan Kolinksy acted for the successful ratepayer in the Supreme Court case of Nuffield Health v Merton LBC, which is now the leading authority on how mandatory charitable relief works.

Landmark members have also been involved in some of the most significant charities exemption cases at High court level, including:

• Derby Teaching Hospitals HNS Foundation Trust v Derby City Council, a very significant case (worth hundreds of millions of pounds) about whether NHS Foundation Trust hospitals were entitled to charitable relief
• My Community Space v Ipswich BC, which considered the evidential issues applied to assessing charitable relief in a rates mitigation context
• South Kesteven DC v Digital Pipeline, which summarised the law on the proper approach to the “whole or main use” limb of the charitable relief test.

Landmark’s rating specialists are experienced in advising and litigating on all other exemptions and reliefs, including the agricultural premises exemption, the religious premises exemption, and the parks exemption.