Land Drainage Act 1991

49 Assessment for rating

(1) This section shall have effect with respect to the assessment of persons to a drainage rate in respect of any hereditament (“the relevant hereditament”) and the liability of the occupier of that hereditament in respect of the rate.

(2) Every rate shall be assessed on the person who at the date of the making of the rate is the occupier of the relevant hereditament.

(3) The full amount of a drainage rate may be recovered by the drainage board in question from any person who is the occupier of the relevant hereditament at any time during the period in respect of which the rate is made; but a person who is in occupation of any hereditament for part only of the period in respect of which a drainage rate is made shall be liable, by virtue of subsection (4) below, to bear a proportionate part only of the rate.

(4) If a person who is in occupation of the relevant hereditament for part only of a period for which a drainage rate is raised is required under subsection (3) above to pay the full amount of the rate, he may (subject to any agreement to the contrary) recover, from any other person who has been in occupation of the relevant hereditament for part of that period, the amount which that other person is liable to bear.

(5) Where the name of any person liable to be assessed to any drainage rate is not known to the board, it shall be sufficient to assess him by the description of “the occupier” of the premises (naming them) in respect of which the assessment is made, without further name or description.

(6) Every demand for a drainage rate shall be in the prescribed form.

(7) Where the value on which a drainage rate is assessed would, apart from this subsection, include a fraction of a pound, the fraction shall—

(a) if greater than fifty pence, be treated as one pound; and

(b) in any other case, be disregarded.