The Arnhem court issued a surprising ruling on 15 April 2009. What was the case? The owner of an immovable property (hereinafter: the property) was of the opinion that the WOZ value of the property should be set at zero. This was because the property was a monument that was not allowed to be occupied; according to the owner, it was an annexe. In this regard, the owner pointed to a letter from the municipality, in which the municipality refused the requested residential permit for the property because the municipality considered that it was an annexe. Moreover, according to the owner, the land was worth nothing because the building was not allowed to be demolished. Although the municipality had refused the residential licence at the time, the owner's daughter was living in the property.
The municipality disagreed with the owner and referred, among other things, to a valuation report prepared by his WOZ appraiser. In this valuation report, the value of the property (in which he classified the property as residential) was assessed at €71,000. In addition to details of the property, this valuation report contains details of a number of comparison properties. The court found that the municipality had correctly included the property in the WOZ valuation as an independent object and as a dwelling. After all, the property was occupied by someone other than the owner and also had all the facilities required for that purpose.
However, the court also held that the WOZ valuer had wrongly not taken into account the value pressure due to the property's listed status. The fact that no residential permit could be obtained was also a pressure on value, according to the court. All things considered, the court set the value at €50,000.
