Rating and Valuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1955

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Citation1955 c. 9


Rating and Valuation (Miscellaneous Provisions)Act, 1955

(4 & 5 Eliz. 2) CHAPTER 9

An Act to amend the law as respects rating and valuation for rating, and for purposes connected therewith.

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:—

S-1 New valuation lists.

1 New valuation lists.

(1) Where a new valuation list is to be made for a rating area under Part III of the Local Government Act, 1948 (in this Act referred to as ‘the Act of 1948’), the list shall be prepared in accordance with the following provisions of this section; and sections thirty-five to thirty-eight of that Act (which relate to the preparation and revision of draft valuation lists and to the settling of valuation lists) shall cease to have effect.

(2) The valuation officer shall prepare the list and (in addition to the other matters required to be included therein) shall insert in the list such particulars with respect to totals of values as may be prescribed by regulations made by the Minister of Housing and Local Government (in this Act referred to as ‘the Minister’), both in respect of the whole rating area and in respect of any parish or other area which is liable to be charged separately in respect of any expenses.

(3) Not later than the end of the month of December preceding the date on which the list is to come into force (or if in any particular case the Minister, either before or after the end of that month, allows an extended period, then not later than the end of that period), the valuation officer shall sign the list and transmit it, together with a copy thereof, to the rating authority.

(4) Where, after the valuation officer has transmitted the list to the rating authority, but before the date on which the list is to come into force, it appears to him that, by reason of a material change of circumstances which has occurred since the time of valuation, the list needs to be altered in any respect, he shall cause the list to be altered accordingly before that date.

In this subsection—

‘material change of circumstances’ means a change of circumstances which consists of the coming into occupation of a newly erected or newly constructed hereditament or of a hereditament which has been out of occupation on account of structural alterations, or consists of any of the events specified in paragraphs (b ) to (g ) of subsection (2) of section forty-two of the Act of 1948;

‘the time of valuation’, in relation to a change of circumstances, means the time by reference to which the valuation officer prepared so much of the list as is affected by that change of circumstances.

(5) The omission from a new valuation list of any matter required by law to be included therein shall not of itself render the list invalid.

(6) In respect of any new valuation list, it shall be the duty of the rating authority immediately upon receipt thereof to take such steps as the authority may consider most suitable for giving notice of the list, and of the rights of persons to inspect the list and to make proposals for altering it.

(7) Where in the case of a hereditament—

(a ) any value ascribed to it in a new valuation list exceeds the corresponding value of the hereditament as last previously determined (whether under Part III of the Act of 1948 or under the enactments repealed by that Act), and

(b ) the hereditament has not been substantially altered since its value was last previously determined, and

(c ) a proposal for the alteration of the list, so as to reduce the value so ascribed to the hereditament, is served on the valuation officer before the end of the year beginning with the date on which the list comes into force,

then, until that proposal has been settled, the amount recoverable in respect of rates levied on the hereditament for that year, or for any subsequent year, shall not (in the case of any such year) exceed the total amount of the rates (including any special rates) levied on the hereditament for the last year before that list came into force.

(8) For the purposes of the last preceding subsection a proposal shall be taken to be settled when an alteration is made in the valuation list so as to give effect to the proposal, or to an agreement made in consequence of the proposal, or when the proceedings on an appeal against, or a reference to arbitration relating to, an objection to the proposal (including any proceedings in consequence of such an appeal or reference to arbitration) are finally determined, or when the proposal is withdrawn, whichever first occurs.

S-2 Alteration of, and proceedings relating to, valuation lists.

2 Alteration of, and proceedings relating to, valuation lists.

(1) In section forty of the Act of 1948 (which enables proposals to be made for the alteration of valuation lists) the following subsection shall be inserted after subsection (2):—

(2A)‘(2a ) Without prejudice to any right exercisable by rating authorities by virtue of subsection (1) of this section, where—

(a ) it appears to a rating authority that a hereditament in their area, which is not included in the list, ought to be included therein, and

(b ) the valuation officer gives notice in writing to the rating authority that he does not intend to make a proposal for inserting that hereditament in the list,

the rating authority, at any time within twenty-eight days after the date on which that notice was given, may make a proposal for the alteration of the list by the insertion of that hereditament therein’:

Provided that this subsection shall not apply for the purpose of altering any valuation list in force at the passing of this Act.

(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in the said section forty, a proposal for altering a valuation list in force at the passing of this Act shall not have effect if (not being made by the valuation officer) it is served on the valuation officer after the passing of this Act, and is made otherwise than by the owner or occupier of the hereditament to which it relates.

(3) Where by any provision of subsections (1) to (3) of section forty-one of the Act of 1948 (which relate to the procedure on proposals for the alteration of valuation lists) a step is authorised or required to be taken within a time-limit of seven days or twenty-one days, that provision shall have effect as if the time-limit were twenty-eight days:

Provided that this subsection shall not affect the time within which the valuation officer is required to transmit copies of proposals made by him.

(4) The proviso to subsection (2) of the said section forty-one (under which in certain cases a copy of a proposal need not be served on the occupier) shall cease to have effect.

(5) In accordance with the two last preceding subsections, subsections (1) to (3) of the said section forty-one shall have effect as set out in Part I of the First Schedule to this Act.

(6) The provisions set out in Part II of the First Schedule to this Act shall be substituted for subsections (4) to (7) of the said section forty-one (which relate to objections by valuation officers, to the procedure on proposals where no objection is made or every objection is unconditionally withdrawn, and to the right of appeal where objections are made and not unconditionally withdrawn).

(7) Any officer of a rating authority, acting under any special or general resolution of the authority, may authorise the institution, carrying on or defence of any proceedings, or the taking of any step, in relation to a valuation list, which the authority are authorised or required to institute, carry on, defend or take.

S-3 Evidence in valuation proceedings.

3 Evidence in valuation proceedings.

(1) This section applies to the following returns, that is to say,—

(a ) any return made under section fifty-eight of the Act of 1948, or under section forty or forty-one of the Rating and Valuation Act, 1925 (in this Act referred to as ‘the Act of 1925’) or under any of sections fifty-five to fifty-seven of the Valuation (Metropolis) Act, 1869 (which sections confer powers for obtaining information for the purpose of preparing valuation lists), and

(b ) any return made (whether before or after the passing of this Act) in compliance with a request of the valuation officer, where the request was made before the passing of the Valuation for Rating Act, 1953, and was a request for information which would have been reasonably required by the valuation officer for the purpose of preparing a valuation list if the said Act of 1953 had been in operation when the request was made.

(2) Subject to the following provisions of this section, any return to which this section applies shall in any valuation proceedings be admissible as evidence of the facts stated in the return; and any document purporting to be a return to which this section applies shall, in any valuation proceedings, be presumed, unless the contrary is shown,—

(a ) to be such a return;

(b ) to have been made by the person by whom it purports to have been made; and

(c ) if it purports to have been made by that person as occupier, owner or lessee of a hereditament, or in any other capacity specified in the document, to have been made by him as such occupier, owner or lessee, or in that other capacity, as the case may be.

(3) Returns to which this section applies shall not be used by or on behalf of the valuation officer as evidence in any valuation proceedings unless—

(a ) not less than fourteen days' notice, specifying the returns to be so used and the hereditaments to which they relate, has previously been given to the person who made the proposal to which the...

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