Vineyards
This publication is intended for Valuation Officers. It may contain links to internal resources that are not available through this version.
1.1 This instruction applies to all rateable vineyards/wineries.
1.2 This section does not cover premises used as a farm shop, which is covered by a separate section in the rating manual.
1.3 Background
1.4 A vineyard is an area of land that is used to plant vines. These vines will then bear grapes which are used to make wine. These grapes can be but are generally not used as ‘for the table’ dessert grapes, which are much sweeter. Initial costs of establishing a vineyard are significant with vines taking approximately 5 years to reach full productivity.
1.5 Most of the commercial vineyards are currently located in the Southeast area of the UK. With the change in climate this is beginning to expand into the Southwest, South Wales, Midlands and East Midlands areas.
1.6 A winery is something different to a vineyard. This is where the wine is produced. This generally involves harvesting the grapes, de stemming (grapes separated from rest of cluster), crushing, fermentation (sugar converting to alcohol), bottling and aging.
List description: Vineyards/Winery & Premises
Primary description code: CX
SCAT code: 294
SCAT suffix: G
Bulk Class: As required for type of property
3.1 The Animal & Rural Class Co-ordination Team (CCT) has overall responsibility for the co-ordination of this class. Each Regional Valuation Unit (RVU) has a representative on the team. The team is responsible for the approach to and the accuracy and consistency of vineyards.
4.1 RVU will be responsible for referencing, gathering facts and valuation.
4.2 The Animal & Rural CCT will deliver practice notes describing the valuation basis for revaluation and provide advice as necessary during the life of the rating lists. Caseworkers have a responsibility to:
- follow the advice given at all times – practice notes are mandatory
- not depart from the advice given on appeal or maintenance work without approval from the CCT
- seek advice from the CCT before starting any new work
5.1 It is anticipated most rateable wineries will be sites with elements other than that of the vine bearing land, and buildings required as part of the process. Claims arising from ‘retail’ being part of the process should be resisted.
5.2 The exemptions section of the rating manual contains further details on agricultural exemption and should be referred to when valuing a vineyard/winery.
6.1 Inspections should be carried out in accordance with the Valuation Office Agency Property Inspector Manual.
6.2 A winery should be measured in accordance with the predominant rateable premises they occupy. For example, industrial buildings will be measured to Gross Internal Area (GIA), whilst occupations of retail type space will be Net Internal Area (NIA). Whichever method is chosen, regard should be had to the definitions contained in the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) Code of Measuring Practice for Rating purposes.
6.3 When inspecting a vineyard/winery, property inspectors should record the location and description to include the following:
- location
- site - size, shape and topography
- buildings infrastructure - age, quality, construction,
- services - heating energy source and water source
- car parking
- photographs of the main constituent parts of the site. Typically, this can include:
- indoor sales areas
- outdoor sales areas
- ancillary storage/office/processing areas
6.4 An inspection checklist is appended to this section (Appendix 1) and should be completed for all new properties, updated for maintenance work and stored in the property folder of the Electronic Document Records Management (EDRM) system.
6.5 Rateability
6.6 When inspecting this classes, special care must be taken with the following:
- identifying the correct unit of assessment
- agricultural exemption
6.7 Identification of the ‘Unit of Assessment’
6.8 Care should be taken in identifying the correct rateable occupier, particularly where facilities are shared between different ventures. It is not uncommon for larger establishments to provide a range of facilities such as gift shops and cafes. Other Non- Domestic uses may be present on site such as conference facilities or holiday homes. Details should be sought as to whether these constitute ‘let outs’ and/ or are operated on a separate basis.
6.9 Agricultural exemption
6.10 Vineyards are exempt as agricultural land. Provided all the grapes processed come from the viticulturists’ own vineyards, the processing of the grapes (the winery) should be regarded as incidental to the agricultural operation of growing the grapes. Processing in this context is to be taken to include bottling and storage of wine awaiting sale and buildings used for this purpose are exempt under Sch 5 para (3)(a).
6.11 If the viticulturist processes other grapes which are produced by other vineyards, none of the buildings will be exempt and, if they engage in selling wine by retail or wholesale (as opposed to selling to a wholesaler), the buildings used in connection with such activities will be rateable. However, regard should be had to the de minimis principle, which can be found in Section 2, part 6, part D of the Rating Manual. Whilst each case must be considered on its own facts and circumstances, any processing of other grapes or retail sales may be disregarded as insignificant if they represent no more than 5% of the total.
7.1 Rating surveys should be captured on the Rating Support Application (RSA). Plans and surveys should be stored in the property folder of Electronic Document and Records Management (EDRM).
7.2 Winery operations of a modest nature, which are likely to have just a shop or a café as the rateable element, should continue to adopt the local sublocation of the industrial/office/retail hereditament they occupy but have their SCAT code amended to 294G. They should be described as vineyard/winery & premises (part exempt).
7.3 Larger operations, which are likely to have a restaurant, retail space, holiday lets and conference facilities should be considered for a receipts-based valuation on the non bulk server (NBS), under the category ‘Valuations on Generic Receipts’.
8.1 The Notice Requesting Statutory Information (Form of Return) for this class of property is typically obtained using VO 6003 or VO 6030.
8.2 Values for rateable elements on smaller sites will be determined by prevailing rental levels within the locality. Where no direct rental evidence exists, regard should be had to other similar properties in the locality. Larger sites, offering more of a leisure experience, should be considered for a receipts-based valuation.
8.3 Relativities
Relativities may require tuning to reflect individual circumstances following the exercise of valuer judgement.
8.5 Tours
Unless these are substantial, it is expected income from seasonal vineyard tours would be classed as de minimis.
Rating Support Application (RSA)
Survaid
Valuation Panel 1 (VP1) animal & rural class co-ordination team (CCT) members
SharePoint guidance for G class suffix
BEFORE LEAVING THE OFFICE
- Print out from VMS a site plan, showing buildings and surrounding fields
- Always run an internet search on the address or name of the vineyard for up-to-date information and what you may expect to find
- More specifically check the Companies House website. If the ratepayer or occupier is a registered company useful information can often be obtained about their activities from the annual report that is filed online.
- Download any useful information relating to the property off the internet
- If you are going in response to a BAR then a search of the local authorities planning website might also prove helpful. If a planning application has been made this is often accompanied by a Design and Access Statement which can be really revealing and helpful.
- Ensure that your Scheduler is up to date and shows your itinerary.
ON SITE
a) Identifying the hereditament
Using the site plan that was prepared in the office before the inspection:
- Mark the boundaries of the whole hereditament - include any domestic and agricultural elements
- Identify and mark up on the plan any domestic occupation within the hereditament - these will be subject to Council Tax and will need to be banded.
- Identify and mark up on the plan all the buildings and land including any parts that may qualify for agricultural exemption - identify field by field, building by building.
b) Photographs
Whilst on site take plenty of photographs for evidential purposes and to minimise the risk of needing to re-inspect. These should include:
- Each of the dwellings, buildings, land.
- General external views, showing the relationships between the buildings and other elements and their proximity to each other,
- Any physical boundaries and their juxtaposition with buildings.
- If possible, some internal photographs (ask permission first) showing the use of the various buildings and what processes are being carried out in them e.g. extracting the juice from the grapes, bottling areas, storage areas and sales/tasting areas.
INSPECTING
Vineyards/Wineries
INSPECTION CHECKLIST
Inspections should be carried out in accordance with the Valuation Office Agency Property Inspector Manual.
Measure to NIA or GIA depending on the type of property it occupies.
| Occupier/ Name of establishment | ||||||
| Address including postcode. | ||||||
| Planning Restrictions. | ||||||
| Location Rural/ Edge of town. Any restrictions on access | ||||||
| Site - size, shape and topography | ||||||
| Car Parking Provision of car parking |
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| Competition/ comparables | ||||||
| Land – Use digital map to show land used for planting/growing grape bearing vines. Is there any other agricultural operation on the site, arable, crops etc. Note number of hectares of whole and for specific parts. |
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| Ext Photographs Buildings, land | ||||||
| Building Construction (m2) Walls; Floor; Roof Include age; use; quality; construction; purpose-built/ conversion; height to eaves. Note quality of each (heating, air con etc). Look out for things like: Retail space/Farm shops Restaurants/cafes Warehousing facilities Bottling facilities Fermentation facilities Holiday Accommodation Conference facilities/hire Wedding venue hire Tours – note how substantial these are i.e., just minimal summer tours or day trip packages with large numbers of customers. |
Date Built | |||||
| Ancillary Accommodation (m2) Offices, staff rooms, kitchen space, internal storage space – note quality of each (heating, air con etc). |
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| Receipts For substantial vineyard operations offering a range of venue hire, holiday accommodation, and retail. Please request receipts information around AVD, or what’s available if it’s a new operation. | ||||||
| Plant and Machinery Details of any items present (E.g., CCTV) should be noted. For rateability and valuation, reference should be made to the VOA Rating Cost Guide. Rating Manual: Valuation of Plant and Machinery | ||||||
| Rental information - What buildings are included? Date of commencement of this level of rent. Incentives Contact details | ||||||
| Internal Photographs | ||||||
| General remarks | ||||||
| Date of survey | Survey by: |
Domestic Checklist
| Where does the occupier of the property live? | Within the same curtilage? Adjacent to the site? Across a public highway? Away from the property altogether? |
| Are there any other dwellings on site? | If yes, please show the positions of the dwelling(s) and their curtilage(s) on the plan and note who lives there. |
| What Planning Permissions / Restrictions are there? | Make full notes, or if possible, obtain a copy of the planning permission |
Agricultural Checklist for Vineyards/Wineries
This also covers generic agricultural operation aspects as this maybe found as part of the hereditament.
| Are any fields used for grazing? | Identify each field on the plan. Is the field ever used for any other purpose? There may be varying degrees of use in addition to grazing use that will not always lead to rateability. |
| What is the nature of any other agricultural business? | e.g., dairy, fattening cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry, arable. |
| Are any fields used for the agricultural business? | Identify on the plan the current use of each field |
| Are any buildings occupied together with agricultural land and used solely in connection with agricultural operations on the land | Identify on the plan the current use of each building A hay barn will qualify for agricultural exemption if it is used either: to store a hay crop taken from the land occupied by the proprietor, or to store hay solely for livestock which are also kept by the occupier. |
| Are any buildings used for keeping or breeding of livestock (excluding horses, ponies etc) | What livestock is kept in the buildings Is the building contiguous to 2 or more hectares of agricultural land |
| Are there any Planning Permissions / Restrictions? | Make full notes, or obtain a copy of the planning permission |
| Is there any other business activity? | Please take full details. |
| Is there a bottling/processing area on site? | Please take full details of process undertaken. Is it just their own grapes being processed? If not please obtain details of this. |
| Is there any retail element to the site? | Note extent of retail use. Is it just a small element of selling from the storage room? Does the site have its own shop? |