Robin Ellis Contracts Ltd (1) Cecil David Dent (2) Jose Marianne Ruth Dent (3) v Commissioners of Customs and Excise

Facts

The third appellant, Mrs José Dent, is disabled by chondrocalcinosis, a form of osteoarthritis diagnosed some 40 years earlier, and has been registered disabled since 1984; regular exercise in warm water is central to maintaining her mobility. Having moved with her husband, the second appellant, to a smaller house with a small garden at 1A Frognall Gardens, London NW3, they engaged the first appellant, a VAT-registered building contractor, to construct a purpose-built hydrotherapy pool in the garden. The London Borough of Camden granted planning permission in December 2000. The confined, sloping site made the project difficult and expensive, requiring excavation, embanking and underpinning, and the pool was built inside a fully enclosed structure incorporating a changing room, toilet, shower and the plant maintaining air temperature, reached from the house by an enclosed glazed corridor. The total cost was £377,979, broken down between the passageway, the pool (including the toilet, shower and changing area and their housing), the pool building and external garden works. The contractor charged VAT on the whole cost pending resolution of the dispute. By a decision of 23 January 2003 the Commissioners confirmed that there were multiple supplies, the pool alone being zero-rated and the housing structure standard-rated. The appellants appealed to the VAT and Duties Tribunal.