Rating Act 1966
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1966 c. 9 |
| Year | 1966 |
Rating Act 1966
1966 CHAPTER 9
An Act to make provision for the payment by instalments of rates on dwellings and for the granting of rebates in respect of such rates; and for connected purposes.
[10th March 1966]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Payment of rates by instalments
1 Right to pay rates on dwelling in England or Wales by instalments.
(1) Without prejudice to any power of a rating authority to make provision for the payment of rates by instalments, any person who (not being a tenant or licensee of the rating authority who pays his rates as part of his rent) is the occupier of, and resides or is usually resident in, a hereditament which—
(a ) either is a dwelling-house or, though not a dwelling-house, is used mainly for the purposes of a private dwelling or private dwellings; and
(b ) is not the subject of arrangements made by virtue of section 11 of the Rating and Valuation Act 1925 or any local Act whereby the payment of rates thereon is made by or through the owner,
may by notice in writing to the rating authority given in accordance with subsection (2) of this section elect to pay any rates in respect of that hereditament by instalments in accordance with this section; and, as from the date which under the said subsection (2) is the effective date of that notice until in pursuance of subsection (7) of this section that notice ceases to be in force, any rates in respect of the rate period in which that date falls or any subsequent rate period which are charged on that person in respect of that hereditament shall be payable by instalments accordingly.
(2) Subject to subsection (3) of this section, a notice by any person under subsection (1) of this section may be given—
(a ) at any time not earlier than 1st February preceding the beginning of a year and not later than 30th April in that year; or
(b ) in the year in which he first becomes qualified to serve such a notice in respect of the hereditament in question, on any later date in that year which is not later than the twenty-eighth day after he first became so qualified;
and the effective date of the notice—
(i) where it is given less than three months before the end of a rate period, shall be the first day of the next succeeding rate period;
(ii) in any other case shall be the date of the giving of the notice.
(3) Where under subsection (2) of this section a notice under subsection (1) thereof would fall to be given at a time before the first occasion when rates are levied in respect of the hereditament in question, the notice may be given at any time not later than the fourteenth day after service of the first demand note for such rates, and the effective date of the notice shall not be earlier than the date of the service of that demand note.
(4) Where a notice under subsection (1) of this section in respect of any hereditament is duly given to the rating authority by a person qualified to give it, the authority shall—
(a ) in respect of the year in which the effective date of that notice falls (or so much of that year as falls after that date); and
(b ) in respect of each subsequent year until that notice ceases to be in force,
send to that person a statement in writing specifying the number of the instalments by which the rates are to be paid in the year in question, the respective dates on which those instalments are to become due, and the respective amounts of those instalments:
Provided that, where the notice under the said subsection (1) is given after the service of a demand note for rates for the rate period in which the effective date of that notice falls, the requirements of paragraph (a ) of this subsection shall be deemed to be satisfied if that demand note included the statement required in consequence of the notice.
(5) The number of the instalments specified in any statement under subsection (4) of this section—
(a ) if the effective date of the notice under subsection (1) of this section is after 30th April, shall in the year in which that effective date falls be not less than the number of complete months between that date and the end of that year (including, if that date is the first day of a month, that month) reduced, if that number of months is three, by one or, if that number of months is four or more, by two;
(b ) in any other case shall be not less than ten;
and the date specified in any such statement for the first instalment thereunder shall not be earlier than ten days after the date when the statement is sent, and the interval between any two of the instalment dates shall not be less than one month.
(6) The amounts specified in any statement under the said subsection (4) for the instalments payable in the year or part of a year to which the statement relates—
(a ) if that statement relates to a whole year and that year includes two or more rate periods, shall be fixed on the basis that the amount in the pound of all rates levied in that year will be that of the rates levied in the first of those rate periods; or
(b ) if that statement relates to part of a year and that part of a year includes the whole or part of two or more rate periods, shall be fixed on the basis that the amount in the pound of the rates levied in any rate period or periods beginning after the date of the sending of the statement will be the amount in the pound, or the average of the amounts in the pound, of the rates levied in any rate period or periods in that year beginning before that date; and
(c ) in every case, shall (apart from any rebate under section 5 of this Act) be equal, except that the rating authority may round off the amount of any of those instalments other than either the first or the last to the nearest shilling and adjust the amount of the first or, as the case may be, last of those instalments accordingly;
but the rating authority may by a further statement in writing make such adjustments in those amounts as may from time to time be necessary in consequence of any change in the amount the occupier is liable to pay by way of rates in respect of that year or part of a year.
(7) A notice under subsection (1) of this section shall cease to be in force—
(a ) if the person by whom it was given withdraws it by a further notice in writing to the rating authority; or
(b ) if—
(i) any instalment is not paid on or before the date when it is due; or
(ii) the rating authority are satisfied that the person aforesaid is no longer qualified to give a notice under the said subsection (1) in respect of the hereditament in question,
and the rating authority give notice in writing to that person that, by reason of the default or, as the case may be, his ceasing to be so qualified, the notice under the said subsection (1) is being treated as cancelled;
and upon the giving of any notice under this subsection any amount due by way of rates in respect of the hereditament shall be recoverable as if no notice had been given under the said subsection (1), without prejudice, however, to the right to give a fresh notice under the said subsection (1) in accordance with subsection (2)(a ) of this section.
(8) No allowance by way of discount shall be made by virtue of section 8 of the Rating and Valuation Act 1925 or any provision for like purposes contained in any local Act on any amount payable by way of an instalment under this section; and the reference in section 11(4) of the said Act of 1925 to occupiers of rated hereditaments shall be construed as a reference to such occupiers other than one by whom a notice under subsection (1) of this section has been given and is for the time being in force.
(9) Where the rates charged on any person in respect of any hereditament are payable by instalments, whether under this section or under section 15 of the Poor Rate Assessment and Collection Act 1869 , then, notwithstanding anything in section 1 of the Distress for Rates Act 1960 , those rates shall be recoverable only to the extent of each respectively of those instalments as and when it falls due; and for the purposes of the said section 1, no sum by way of rates in respect of any year or part of a year shall be treated as having been legally demanded from any person in respect of any hereditament in respect of which he is entitled to give but has not given a notice under subsection (1) of this section until the expiration of the period for the giving of such a notice by that person in that year; and the said section 15 from ‘and thereupon’ onwards is hereby repealed.
(10) This section shall not extend to Scotland.
2 Right to pay rates on dwelling in Scotland by instalments.
(1) Except when the rating authority have made provision to the satisfaction of the Secretary of State for the payment of rates by instalments by any person in the area of that authority who—
(a ) is the occupier of, and resides or is usually resident in, a hereditament which either is a dwelling-house, or, though not a dwelling-house, is used mainly for the purposes of a private dwelling or private dwellings, and
(b ) is not liable under the House Letting and Rating (Scotland) Acts 1911 and 1920, or under section 239, 240 or 241 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947 or under any local Act to pay the amount of the rates in respect of that hereditament to the owner thereof,
any such person may by notice in writing to the rating authority, given in accordance with subsection (2) of this section, elect to pay to them any rates in respect of that hereditament by instalments in accordance with this section; and as from the date when that notice is given...
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