The Non-Domestic Rating (Collection and Enforcement) (Local Lists) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2009

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Non-Domestic Rating (Collection and Enforcement) (Local Lists) Regulations 1989 (“the 1989 Regulations”) to make special provision in relation to the collection of certain backdated liability to rates.

The 1989 Regulations provide for annual rates liability to be discharged in instalments in many cases. However, where a demand notice – or rates bill – is issued after the end of the financial year to which it relates, the sum becomes payable in full. This can happen where a hereditament is shown on a rating list for the first time with effect from a date in that year following an amendment to the rating list which is not made until after the year has ended.

These Regulations insert a new Schedule 1A into the 1989 Regulations to provide that where a ratepayer is subject to backdated liability that has not already been discharged, the billing authority and the ratepayer can agree to reschedule the liability that accrued in the period between the effective date of the amendment to the rating list and the date the amendment was actually made, so that it is payable over a period not exceeding eight years. The criteria that must be satisfied before a ratepayer can take advantage of these arrangements are set out in paragraph 1 of new Schedule 1A. In particular, paragraph 1 provides that the arrangements in new Schedule 1A will apply only where backdated liability arises as a result of a change to a rating list which is made on or before 31st March 2010 and where the demand notice (or notices) in respect of the liability was issued in the financial year beginning on 1st April 2007, 1st April 2008 or 1st April 2009.

The power to make an agreement to reschedule backdated liability is in paragraph 2 of new Schedule 1A, which also requires the backdated liability to be divided equally between each year the agreement is in force. Paragraph 3 provides that agreements reached in relation to backdated liability will continue to govern the discharge of that liability even if a further alteration to a rating list means that the conditions for making the agreement would not have been met if that change had been effective on the day the agreement was made. Paragraph 4 modifies regulation 8 with the effect that the rates enforcement regime in Part 3 of the 1989 Regulations will apply if a ratepayer fails to pay an instalment due in accordance with an agreement under new Schedule 1A.

A full impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of business and the voluntary sector is available from the Department for Communities and Local Government’s Business Rates and Valuation Division (telephone [phone]) and is annexed to the Explanatory Memorandum which is available alongside the instrument on the OPSI website (www.opsi.gov.uk).