VCONST09650 - Alterations and repair or maintenance - case law and agreements: restoration

Works of restoration can be carried out either because the building:

• is in disrepair, due to fire-damage, for example

or

• has been unsympathetically altered in the past.

For buildings in severe disrepair you should not use the High Court judgment in C R Morrish ([1998] STC 954) to say that the works of restoration are not ‘alterations’ because they are works of ‘reconstruction’.

Instead, you should examine the works and decide if they are alterations that are also works of repair or maintenance, following the rest of the guidance in this section and in VCONST08000. Where appropriate, an apportionment can be made.