Rating and Valuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1955

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 proceedings relate (where the proposal was not made by the valuation officer) and to every person who has served, and has not unconditionally withdrawn, a notice of objection to the proposal, and

(b) the valuation officer has permitted any such person, who has given not less than twenty-four hours' notice of his desire to do so, to inspect at any reasonable time, and to take extracts from, any of the returns specified in the notice under the preceding paragraph.

(4) The two last preceding subsections shall not apply to any proceedings relating to the ascertainment of the net annual value of a hereditament by reference to the accounts, receipts or profits of an undertaking:

Provided that this subsection shall not be construed as preventing the use of any return in any such proceedings in circumstances where the return could be so used apart from this section.

(5) Any person to whom notice relating to any hereditaments has been given under paragraph (a) of subsection (3) of this section for the purposes of any valuation proceedings may give notice to the valuation officer, specifying one or more other hereditaments, as being hereditaments which are comparable in character or are otherwise relevant to the said person's case, and requiring the valuation officer—

(a) to permit him at any reasonable time specified in the notice under this subsection to inspect, and (if he so desires) to take extracts from, all returns (if any) to which this section applies, which relate to those other hereditaments and are in the possession of the valuation officer, and

(b) to produce to him at the hearing such of those returns as before the hearing he has informed the valuation officer that he requires:

Provided that the number of hereditaments specified in a notice under this subsection shall not exceed the number of hereditaments specified in accordance with paragraph (a) of subsection (3) of this section in the notice given by the valuation officer under that paragraph.

(6) Where a notice has been given to the valuation officer under the last preceding subsection, and the valuation officer refuses or fails to comply with the notice, the person who gave the notice may apply to the court or tribunal before which the valuation proceedings in question are to be brought; and if on any such application the court or tribunal is satisfied that it is reasonable to do so, the court or tribunal may by order direct the valuation officer to comply with the notice, either with respect to all the hereditaments specified therein or with respect to such one or more of those hereditaments as the court or tribunal may determine.

(7) The last preceding subsection shall apply, with the necessary modifications, to proceedings on an arbitration as it applies to proceedings before a court.

(8) An appeal shall lie from the decision of a local valuation court on an application under subsection (6) of this section, as if it were a decision in the valuation proceedings to which the application relates.

(9) Section sixty-three of the Act of 1948 (which relates to the service of notices and other documents) shall apply in relation to any notice authorised or required to be given for the purposes of this section as it applies in relation to the notices referred to in that section.

(10) In this section " valuation proceedings " means any of the following, that is to say, any proceedings on or in consequence of an appeal to a local valuation court, and any proceedings on or in consequence of a reference to arbitration under section fifty of the Act of 1948.