South West Water Authority v Rumble's
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Year | 1984 |
| Court | House of Lords |
| Date | 1984 |
Rating - Sewerage - Right to charge - Property not connected to public sewer - Hereditament on ground floor of building without water or drainage facilities - Whether occupier liable to pay charge for water services -
The respondents were the occupiers of a ground floor shop in the area for which the appellant water authority were responsible. The shop was a separate hereditament for rating purposes but formed a part of a larger building. It had no water or drainage facilities. Above it were two floors of residential accommodation that had both water and drainage facilities. Surface water was removed from the roof of that building by way of a downpipe running into a gulley and from there into the water authority's sewer. For the year 1 April 1981 to 31 March 1982 the water authority levied a charge on the occupiers in respect of water services and, when the charge was not paid, brought proceedings in the county court to recover the moneys due. The registrar entered judgment for the water authority but, on the occupiers' appeal, the judge held that the water authority were not under the provisions of section 30 of the Water Act 1973F1 entitled to levy the charge. On appeal by the water authority the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal.
On appeal by the water authority: —
Held, allowing the appeal, (1) that, by virtue of section 30(1)(b)(i) read with section 30(1A) of the Water Act 1973 as amended, the occupiers were chargeable since the shop had the benefit of the roof's drainage facility discharging to a public sewer and thus the two conditions for the operation of paragraph (b) of section 30(1A) were satisfied, namely, that the person liable to be rated had the use of drainage facilities and that those facilities were a benefit to the hereditament (post, pp. 411F–412A, B, 413C–E).
(2) That in the circumstances the matter should be remitted to the county court for determination under section 30(5) of the Water Act 1973 of the question, raised in the county court, whether under the relevant charges scheme there was undue discrimination against persons such as the occupiers whose hereditament was chargeable because it had the benefit of facilities belonging to another (post, pp. 412E–G, 413A, C–E).
Per curiam. A restrictive interpretation of the language of the Water Act 1973, as amended, would defeat the broad purpose of this innovative and reforming statute (post, p. 411C).
Quaere. Whether section 30(5) of the Act of 1973 had any possible application to the charge scheme or to the charge the water authority sought to levy (post, p. 412F–G).
The following case is referred to in the opinion of Lord Scarman:
Daymond v. Plymouth City Council [
No additional cases were cited in argument.
APPEAL from the Court of Appeal.
This was an appeal by the appellant, the South West Water Authority, from an order dated 12 March 1984 of the Court of Appeal (Ackner and O'Connor L.JJ.) dismissing an appeal by the appellant from an order dated 25 August 1983 of Judge Chope in the Truro County Court whereby he set aside a judgment in favour of the appellant for £196.84 and costs assessed at £34.70 given by Mr Registrar Lyne on 9 June 1984 in proceedings brought against the respondents, a partnership trading under the name Rumble's, as the occupiers of a ground floor shop at Newquay, Cornwall, to recover the above sum for water charges levied against the occupiers by the water authority for the year 1 April 1981 to 31 March 1982.
The facts are set out in the opinion of Lord Scarman.
Gerard Ryan Q.C. and Roger Toulson for the appellant.
John Colyer Q.C. and Timothy Scott for the respondents.
Their Lordships took time for consideration.
14 February. LORD SCARMAN. My Lords, the appellant is a regional water authority established pursuant to section 2 of the Water Act 1973. The respondents are the rateable occupiers of ground floor shop premises at 5, Fore Street, Newquay. The water authority seeks to recover from the respondents a water charge for sewerage services in respect of the shop premises. The water authority relies on a charges scheme made by it pursuant to section 31 of the Act of 1973 as entitling it to demand and recover the charge which it claims. The power to charge for sewerage services arises under section 30(1) of the Act of 1973 as amended by section 2 of the
The shop is a separate hereditament for rating purposes, its rateable value being £930. It has no water supply. There are no water appliances or facilities within the shop: no water, therefore, drains from inside the shop to a sewer. But the shop does enjoy the protection of the roof of the building of which it is structurally the lower part; and the surface water is drained off the roof by a gutter and pipe system discharging into a public sewer.
The building, known as No 5, Fore Street, consists of the shop on the ground floor and above it a flat which is separate from the shop and is in separate occupation. No satisfactory evidence was received at the trial as to tenure: but it appears from what the judge in the county court said in his judgment that the respondents' interest in the shop is leasehold and that their landlord is under an obligation to keep the roof of the building in good...
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...were provided to both the owner and the occupier for the purposes of section 142(1)(b); see South West Water Authority v Rumble's [1985] AC 609; iii) Section 143(4) provides that a charges scheme may make different provision in relation to different circumstances and may contain supplementa......
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...Ltd v Federal Commissioner of Taxation (1981) 147 CLR 297 at 320, per Mason and Wilson JJ. See also South West Water Authority v Rumble’s [1985] AC 609 at 617, per Lord Scarman, “in the context of the legislation read as a whole”. In Commissioner for Railways (NSW) v Agalianos ((1955) 92 CL......