Answer

Under the NHS Premises Directions the district valuer assumes that with rented premises the lease is new and is for a 15- year period with upward- only rent reviews every three years. Each time a three-yearly review is due, the district valuer ignores the period for which the lease has been in existence. This means that the notional rent can go down.

This assumption used to be applied to both notional rents for owner-occupied premises and lease rents, but it was challenged successfully as being unfair.

The outcome was that for leasehold premises, the district valuer must consider the actual lease. If, because of an upwards-only clause, the rent is not altered (say, when rents in general are falling), then the rent reimbursement should not be reviewed. But, for the owner-occupied GP premises, notional rents can still go up or down.