ABSTRACT
For any valuation, the valuer needs to know what the property to be valued comprises and what its boundaries are. The term used for a single unit of rateable property is a hereditament. The Local Government Finance Act 1988 does not actually define hereditament but, in section 64(1), it ‘helpfully’ states: 64.- (1) A hereditament is anything which, by virtue of the definition of hereditament in section 115(1) of the 1967 Act, would have been a hereditament for the purposes of that Act had this Act not been passed. In practice, identifying the hereditament in most cases is straightforward but some circumstances do difficulties. Summarising the rules to be an hereditament a property must: be within one or more billing authorities’ areas; have a single rateable occupier; be capable of separate occupation; be a single geographical unit; be put to a single purpose; and have a single definable position.
