CA32750 - IBA: Other rules about buildings: Disregard legislation applies to a building not premises
The legislation that lets you disregard a percentage of
non-qualifying use applies to an individual building. It does not
apply to a collection of buildings on the same site even if taken
together they form composite premises for a business (Abbott
Laboratories Ltd. v Carmody 44TC569). Abbott Laboratories developed
a site for their trade of manufacturing pharmaceutical products.
They claimed IBA on the administration block that was connected to
the pharmaceutical block, 25 yards away, by a covered passageway on
the grounds that the IBA legislation let them treat all the
buildings on the site as a single building. The company lost
because it was held that the administration block was not
sufficiently integrated with the other blocks to justify treatment
of the complex of buildings as a single building.
You should treat two buildings that are linked by an overhead
bridge or a covered corridor as separate buildings if the link can
be easily removed. The question of whether premises constitute a
single building is a question of fact and so if there is a dispute
you may find visiting the premises worthwhile. You may also find
the following questions helpful:
- are there common water supplies, power supply, heating system etc. If there are this is in favour of there being one unified structure;
- can a part be demolished without seriously damaging the other parts. If the answer is “no" this is evidence in favour of there being one unified structure.
The question of what is a unified structure was considered in Lancashire Electric Power Company v Wilkinson 28TC427. In that case the power house of an electricity generating station was held to be a single industrial building.
