Business Rates in England and Wales - Hereditament

Hereditament

Hereditament is a legal term for a unit of property, which often appears to be synonymous with simply "property", in the bricks and mortar sense of the word. The concept of hereditament in rating law has developed along with that of rateable occupation through case law, as no single statute has defined it adequately. The Local Government Finance Act 1988 specifically retained the definition of hereditament from the General Rate Act 1967:

"hereditament" means property which is or may become liable to a rate, being a unit of such property which is, or would fall to be, shown as a separate item in the valuation list.

This itself does not directly provide a definition, but depends on the case law already established by prior forms of rating; no statutory definition of the hereditament exists. In case law, the concept of the hereditament is inextricably linked to that of rateable occupation.