{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/land-drainage-act-1961/section-5",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/land-drainage-act-1961/section-5.json",
  "legislation": "ukpga/Eliz2/9-10/48",
  "legislation_title": "Land Drainage Act 1961",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/land-drainage-act-1961",
  "path": "section/5",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "5",
  "heading": "Operation and incidence of drainage charges",
  "text": "(1) A drainage charge shall be raised by a river board in writing under the common seal of the board and shall be deemed to be raised on the date on which a resolution is passed by the board authorising their seal to be affixed to the charge.\n(2) Every drainage charge shall be raised for a year ending on the thirty-first day of March and shall be raised in the year preceding that for which it is raised.\n(3) The Minister may by statutory instrument make regulations prescribing the forms of drainage charges and of demands for drainage charges.\n(4) The following provisions shall have effect with respect to the assessing of persons to a drainage charge in respect of any hereditament, and their liability in regard to the charge:—\n(a) the charge shall be assessed on the person who at the date of the raising of the charge is the occupier of the hereditament;\n(b) the full amount of the charge may be recovered by the river board from any person who is the occupier of the hereditament at any time during the period for which the charge is raised ; but\n(c) a person who is in occupation of the hereditament for part only of the period for which the charge is raised is liable to bear a proportionate part only of the charge and, if he has been required under paragraph (b) of this subsection to pay the full amount of the charge, he , may recover from any person who was in occupation of the hereditament for part of that period the amount which that other person is liable to bear.\n(5) Where a hereditament is a chargeable hereditament during part only of the year for which a drainage charge is raised, a proportionate part only of the charge shall be payable in respect of that hereditament; and any amount overpaid shall be repaid.\n(6) Where the name of any person liable to be assessed to any drainage charge is not known to the river board, it shall be sufficient to assess him to the charge by the description of the \" occupier \" of the premises (naming them) in respect of which the assessment is made, without further name or description.\n(7) A river board shall not be required to demand or enforce payment of a drainage charge in any case where the amount thereof is in their opinion insufficient to justify the expense of collection.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Eliz2/9-10/48/section/5",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T11:10:08.989782+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}