General Rate Act 1967

55 Rating of owners instead of occupiers.

(1) Any rating authority may by resolution direct that, in the case of all hereditaments in their area which belong to a class to be defined in the resolution by reference to rateable value and also, if rent is paid and the rating authority so decide, by reference to the interval at which rent from time to time becomes payable or is collected, the owners thereof shall be rated instead of the occupiers :

Provided that the class shall not be so defined as to include any hereditaments the rateable value of which exceeds fifty-six pounds or such other limit as may for the time being be fixed by an order under subsection (5) of this section.

(2) Where a rating authority give any such direction as aforesaid, the owners of any hereditaments in that authority's rating area to which the direction applies shall, in the case of any rate made while the resolution is in force, be rated accordingly, and the rating authority shall make to any owner who being so rated pays the amount due from him in respect of the rate before the expiration of half the period in respect of which the rate was made (or, if the rate is payable by instalments, half the period in which the instalment is payable), or before such later date or dates as may be specified in the resolution, an allowance equal to ten per cent. of the amount payable.

(3) A resolution of the rating authority rescinding a previous resolution under subsection (1) of this section shall take effect only on the expiration of a rate period.

(4) Any owner who under subsection (2) of this section pays any rate which, as between the owner and the occupier, the occupier is liable to pay shall be entitled to be reimbursed by the occupier the amount so paid.

(5) The Minister may by order substitute a different limit for that specified in the proviso to subsection (1) of this section ; but any such order shall not affect any person's liability for rates for any period before the coming into force of the first new valuation list to come into force after the date of the order.

(6) Any order under subsection (5) of this section shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

(7) In the application of this section to the Temples, for any reference to a resolution of the rating authority there shall be substituted a reference to an order of the rating authority.