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Appeal No. VA05/2/005 & 006
AN BINSE LUACHÁLA Peter Gunter & Carrigaholt Restaurants Ltd. APPELLANTS RE: Shop at Lot No. Unit 1- (VA05/2/005) & Restaurant/Cafe
at B E F O R E JUDGMENT OF THE VALUATION TRIBUNAL By Notices of Appeal dated the 7th day of April, 2005, the appellant appealed against the determination of the Commissioner of Valuation in fixing rateable valuations of €80.00 and €145.00 respectively on the above described relevant properties. The Grounds of Appeal as set out in each Notice of Appeal are: 1. With the consent of the parties these appeals were held contemporaneously on the 30th of May, 2005 at the offices of the Tribunal, Ormond House, Ormond Quay Upper, Dublin 7. At the hearing the appellants were represented by Ms. Sheelagh O Buachalla, BA, ASCS, MRICS, a Director of GVA Donal O Buachalla. Mr. Shay Aylward, B.Comm., FCCA, a Staff Valuer with the Valuation Office appeared on behalf of the respondent, the Commissioner of Valuation, in relation to each appeal. The Properties Concerned 3. The Clare Road Business Centre development consists of a restaurant
and three retail units on the ground floor with offices at first floor
level. There are two additional floors overhead but these have not yet
been fitted out and are incapable of beneficial occupation. At the side
and rear there is an enclosed car park, which also provides access to
stores at this level. 4. The properties which are the subject of these appeals are unit No.1
and unit No. 4 and the relevant facts as agreed in relation to these properties
are as set out hereunder: a) VA05/2/005 - Appellant Peter Gunter Occupied under a 25-year lease from the 1st of June, 2004 at an initial yearly rent of €60,000 with provision for rent reviews at five-yearly intervals. b) VA05/2/006 - Appellant Carrigaholt Restaurants Ltd. Occupied under a 30-year lease from the 1st June, 2004 at an initial yearly rent at €115,000 with provision for rent reviews at 5 yearly intervals. Valuation History The Appellant's Evidence (a) Unit 1 Retail 153.96 sq. metres @ €80.14 = €12,338.00 Total NAV €13,067.80 (b) Unit 2 Ground Floor Restaurant 221.94 sq. metres @ €73.80 = €16,379.17 Total NAV €23,649.10 In support of her opinion of net annual values Ms. O Buachalla introduced a number of comparisons, details of which are attached in Appendix 1 to this judgment. The same comparisons were relied upon in relation to each appeal. In her evidence Ms. O Buachalla said the Clare Road Business Centre occupied an out of town location and benefited little from passing traffic due to the fact that there was no direct access from the Ennis to Limerick road. In effect the shops in the centre which, in addition to the subject properties, consisted of an Off-Licence, Bookmaker and Restaurant (VA05/2/006), relied mainly upon custom drawn from housing estates in the immediate vicinity. Ms. O Buachalla said both businesses were in a start up position at the valuation date and experienced relatively low levels of trade due to the out of town location. Ms. O Buachalla in additional oral evidence was critical of Mr. Aylward's use of his comparisons A and B (see Appendix 2). These properties, Ms O Buachalla said, were shop units attached to modern filling station forecourts and hence were not retail units in the accepted sense. Ms. O Buachalla said that in her experience shops attached to filling stations attracted a premium of about 10% in valuation levels over and above assessments of standard retail units in the immediate vicinity of the filling station concerned. Under examination Ms. O Buachalla agreed that all her comparisons occupied town centre locations but did not agree with Mr. Aylward's contention that they were off prime. She agreed that the Xtra-Vision unit (her comparison No. 1) had a short frontage relative to its depth and her comparison No. 2, Mid-West Tiles, was in a refurbished former mill building with frontage onto a local authority car park. Respondent's Evidence In his evidence Mr. Aylward contended for rateable valuations of €80
and €145 in respect of units 1 and 4 calculated as set out below.
Retail/Ground floor 153.96 sq. metres @ €123.01 = €18,938.00 Total NAV €20,398.00 In support of his opinion of the net annual value of Unit 1 Mr. Aylward introduced 4 comparisons, details of which are set out in Appendix 2 attached to this judgment. (b) Unit 4 Ground Floor Restaurant 276.8 sq. metres @ €116.17 = €32,155 In support of his opinion of the net annual value of Unit 4 Mr. Aylward introduced 5 comparisons, details of which are set out in Appendix 3 attached to this judgment. The same comparisons were advanced in his report for each appeal. In evidence Mr. Aylward said that in arriving at his opinion of net annual value he had examined the valuation of other retail premises in the vicinity of the property concerned. Mr. Aylward said that there were four filling stations on the Ennis to Limerick road located relatively close to the Clare Road Business Centre. Each of these filling stations, he said, had shops attached to them all of which were valued at €136.67 per sq. metre. He said that his comparisons A and B were the nearest to the subject property- comparison A was on the town side of the subject whilst comparison B was on the other side. Contrary to Ms. O Buachalla's statement Mr. Aylward said that it was not the practice of the Valuation Office to apply a loading factor to shops attached to filling stations. Mr. Aylward said he had also looked at assessments elsewhere in Ennis and had selected comparisons C, D and E as examples. Mr. Aylward said that in his opinion his comparisons A, B and C were most relevant as they were located relatively close to the subject property and were somewhat similar in category of use. Under examination Mr. Aylward agreed that shops in Ennis town centre would have a better passing trade than that enjoyed by the subject property. He further agreed that the surrounding area was predominantly residential in character and was still in the course of development. Mr. Aylward said that he had taken all of these factors into account when arriving at his opinions of net annual value including the proximity of St. Flannan's College which in his opinion was a positive factor. Findings Determination A) Unit No. 1 B) Unit No. 4 |