The law has a rather long and unique relationship with snails, and a recent case in Liverpool that solicitors are navigating has exposed a bizarre loophole in the tangled web of property tax legislation.

One of the most pivotal cases in contract law, Donoghue v Stevenson from 1932, involved a snail in a bottle of ginger beer, which subsequently made a woman ill and led to the legal precedent of duty of care in the process.

In more recent years, snails have caused a lot of legal issues for building owners, office leaseholders and local government authorities, with an ongoing dispute in Liverpool being only the latest in a string of disputes, legal complaints and even court cases.

Why are snails being taken into offices, and why has it become a matter for the courts?

Purpose Defines A Building

The Liverpool case concerns a company known as Snai1 Primary Products 2023 Ltd, the holder of an office lease in the basement of 9 Dale Street, Liverpool.

The office holds nothing in it except 15 crates, each of which has a small number of snails in them.

These are the only two facts that can be confirmed, as everything else concerning the snails and their purpose differs depending on which story the courts believe should the dispute go to trial.

According to Terence Ball, the owner of Snai1, the covered crates are part of a snail farming operation. Each crate contains two snails because, according to Mr Ball, snails can breed uncontrollably quickly.

The minimal starting number stops, according to L’escargotiere, another company owned by Mr Ball, “cannibalism, group sex and snail orgies”.

However, Liverpool City Council claim that the “snail farm” is part of a tax avoidance scheme to have all or part of a building classified as for agricultural use, which means it would not pay the business rates an office would pay even when it lies empty.

The way in which Snai1 is run contradicts the advice and operations of other snail farming businesses, who noted that snail farming is a far more intensive job than keeping snails in a box. Other advice claimed that far more than two snails are needed for effective breeding.

Snai1’s director, Terence Ball, also owns BoyceBrook, a company that describes itself as the “Canceller of the Exchequer” on its website.

Whilst tax avoidance is not a crime per se, it can leave a business liable to pay overdue rates if successfully challenged in court. 

According to Liverpool City Council, no commercial premises have been granted an agricultural exemption thus far, but the scheme has been attempted many times with mixed success.

A scheme in Bradford in 2020 appeared to work, but a similar scheme in Kirklees led to a successful legal challenge and the awarding of £16,000 in costs.

The most important case in this regard was Isle Investments Limited v Leeds City Council, a 2021 case concerning a similar albeit more explicit tax avoidance scheme that involved lease contracts described as a “sham”.

The lease contracts had a clause in them requiring the farming of snails, which was impossible given the nature of the building, and both the initial trial and an appeal concluded that a similar scheme was a sham, costing Isle Investments nearly £40,000.