The Non-Domestic Rating (Unoccupied Property) (England) Regulations 2008

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

Section 45 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 provides that owners of empty non-domestic properties are liable to pay non-domestic rates if certain conditions apply. One of those conditions is that the property must fall within a class prescribed by regulations made, in relation to England, by the Secretary of State.

These Regulations prescribe that class as consisting of all buildings or parts of buildings except those listed in regulation 4 (regulation 3). Those exceptions include all properties which have been continuously empty for three months or less.

The exceptions largely replicate those in regulation 2(2) of the Non-Domestic Rating (Unoccupied Property) Regulations 1989 (“the 1989 Regulations”), which are revoked in their application to England by these Regulations (regulation 7). However, the exception for certain industrial properties which have been continuously empty for six months or less (regulation 4(b)) replaces the previous permanent exception for those properties and the exception for companies in administration (regulation 4(l)) is new.

Regulations 5 and 6 contain similar provisions to those in the 1989 Regulations dealing with when a property will be considered to have been continuously empty for three or six months or less and the application of the Regulations to properties which have never been occupied.

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.ospi.gov.uk).