For many years, landlords have looked at ways of mitigating their exposure to business rates on empty commercial properties.

One way of doing this is to have a short-term occupation of the property for at least six weeks – allowing landlords to take advantage of empty property relief for either three or six months.

Business rates mitigation has become a business in itself and, when managed and implemented properly on a rolling basis, significant savings can be made. However, some councils have made it difficult for landlords to claim relief, with different local authorities having different interpretations of the requirements and, in some cases, adopting unreasonable positions.

Eligibility
To be eligible for empty property relief, councils must be satisfied that the property has been under rateable occupation for at least six weeks. Landlords will need to prove actual occupation, which must be exclusive and of some benefit to them.

Over time, some cases have made it very clear that the bar for actual occupation is low. In 2013, Shakespeare Martineau successfully acted for Stirling Investment Properties in a dispute against Sunderland City Council, where the court found that a small Bluetooth server installed in a large warehouse was sufficient enough for an entire property to be classed as occupied.

The biggest battle for landlords and tenants – and one we see time and time again – is over what amounts to beneficial occupation.