Gareth Rhys appeared on behalf of the Respondent Listing Officer in a statutory appeal to the High Court from a decision of the President of the Valuation Tribunal for England.

The Appellant was a US citizen who sought to challenge his liability to pay council tax and the deletion of his property from the council tax list. The Appellant’s original application was made on the basis of arguments about the proper construction of the words “hereditament” and “dwelling” in the context of the Local Government Finance Act 1992. In his appeal to the High Court he also mounted a challenge to the jurisdiction of the Valuation Office Agency and the Valuation Tribunal for England. Part of his submissions related to quasi-constitutional arguments that council tax was an interference with his absolute right to the free use and enjoyment of his property (sometimes known as “Freemen on the Land” or “sovereign citizen” arguments).

Following the hearing Mr Justice Constable dismissed the appeal. In his judgment he agreed with the Respondent that “hereditament” was simply a word concerned with enabling the identification of a unit of property for the purposes of taxation, rather than circumscribing when such property may be subjected to tax. He also held that the statutory regime for council tax was “the laws of this land” and thus did not affect the Appellant’s absolute right to enjoy his property.

The judgment contains a useful encapsulation of salient points of the caselaw on the meaning of “hereditament” in the context of council tax and can be accessed here.

Read more about the case in various media:

The Law Society Gazette

The Evening Standard

The Times

The Telegraph

Local Government Lawyer