The council sought to enforce payment of arrears of council tax. The company responded that proceedings had not been begun in time. The company contended that time ran from the day when the council set the precept. The regulations said that time ran from the date of service of the notification of liability served on the respondent. The first would have been out of time, but the second was not, and the action could proceed.
Held: A failure to serve the notice as soon as practicable did not operate as a bar to recovery of the tax, unless the breach had occasioned some procedural or substantive prejudice.
Lightman J said: ‘The statutory duty is imposed at least in substantial part for the protection of those from whom the billing authority may seek payment of council tax. The notice is required to enable the recipient to know that a claim may be made for payment and accordingly to take immediate steps to prepare and assemble any necessary evidence to establish that there is not a duty to pay . . and to arrange his finances to make payment.’
Lightman J
[2004] EWHC 246 (Admin), Times 04-Mar-2004, Gazette 18-Mar-2004, [2004] RA 113
Bailii
Local Government Finance Act 1992, Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992
England and Wales
Citing:
Distinguished – Encon Insulation Ltd v Nottingham City Council Admn 9-Jun-1999
When the rating authority discovered ratable premises, and issued claims going back in time the test was not whether they were unaware of them earlier, but whether they could have taken steps beforehand to discover the existence of the premises. A . .
Cited by:
Cited – North Somerset District Council v Honda Motor Europe Ltd and Others QBD 2-Jul-2010
Deleayed Rates Claims Service made them Defective
The council claimed that the defendants were liable for business rates. The defendants said that the notices were defective in not having been served ‘as soon as practicable’, and further that they should not be enforced since the delay had created . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Rating, Local Government
Updated: 31 October 2021; Ref: scu.193708