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Flatly incredible

The issue raised in 'Flatly incredible' (Taxation 14 July 2005 page 406) has been an issue of concern to me as a practitioner with small business clients e.g. hoteliers shop-keepers etc.
In the example given of a part-disposal surely there is the sale of an asset i.e. the first flat which itself has had only non-business use? It might well be a part-disposal of a larger asset but it must be stretching the interpretation of Sch A1 para 9 to even consider that paragraph to be applicable in such a circumstance.
However the distinction between successive part-disposals in a short timescale and the sale of the whole could create inconsistencies and so with this in mind the approach of HMRC works best — but it does seem to give an 'unfair' result.
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