The applicants each sought judicial review of a decision of the magistrate that he did not have jurisdiction to decline to issue liability notices. They argued that the Council had failed to issue the required notices before placing the properties on the List.
Held: The appeal failed. The role of the Magistrates Court was limited to considering whether liability had arisen following the service of a demand notice under Regulation 4 and a non payment of sums due and demanded on such an application. It was not open to the Magistrates Court (or an Appeal Court) to go behind the list and entertain a challenge to the validity or accuracy of the entry in the rating list upon which the liability order is based, and: ‘the Deputy District Judge was bound to conclude that the sums had become payable. The statutory scheme delivers that result. The two conditions specified in section 43(1) (a) and (b) of the 1988 Act were satisfied: the ratepayers were in occupation of the hereditaments on the days in question and the hereditaments were shown for the days in question in the local non-domestic rating list in force for the relevant years. The ratepayers, that is to say the claimants, were liable to pay an amount calculated in accordance with the provisions of section 43 of the 1988 Act. The liability for rates and the duty to pay the rates are separate. The liability arises by operation of the primary legislation. The duty to pay arises under the 1989 Regulations. No payment in respect of the liability need be made until a demand notice is served: see regulation 7(6) of the 1989 Regulations. No enforcement action can be taken unless a demand notice has been served.’
Burnett J
[2011] EWHC 1009 (Admin), [2011] RA 247
Bailii
Non-Domestic Rating (Alteration of Lists and Appeals) (England) Regulations 2005 42, Local Government Finance Act 1988 41 43
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Regina v Soneji and Bullen HL 21-Jul-2005
The defendants had had confiscation orders made against them. They had appealed on the basis that the orders were made more than six months after sentence. The prosecutor now appealed saying that the fact that the order were not timely did not . .
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 . .
Cited – County and Nimbus Estates Limited v Ealing London Borough Council 1979
. .
Cited – Vitesse Networks Ltd, Regina (on The Application of) v North West Wiltshire Magistrates Court Admn 10-Dec-2009
. .
Cited – County and Nimbus Estates Limited v Ealing London Borough Council 1979
. .
Cited – Hackney London Borough Council v Mott and Fairman QBD 7-Jul-1994
Justices have no jurisdiction to check the validity of an entry on the non-domestic rating list. . .
Cited by:
Cited – Sunderland City Council v Stirling Investment Properties Llp Admn 24-May-2013
The Council appealed by cases stated against dismissal of its summons against the defendant alleging non-payment of non-domestic rates. The property owned by the respondent had been occupied by a tenant, but only by a small equipment box, and the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Rating
Updated: 01 November 2021; Ref: scu.432854