# The Local Authorities (Contracting Out of Tax Billing, Collection and Enforcement Functions) Order 1996, Article 51: Demand notices and payments of non-domestic rates


(1) In this article, “relevant conditions” means the conditions mentioned in section 43(1) of the Act (occupied hereditaments: liability) or section 45(1) of the Act (unoccupied hereditaments: liability).
(2) For the purposes of Part II of the Regulations (Billing), an authority may authorise a contractor to identify the ratepayers of the authority, and for the purposes of Part II of the the Regulations (Joint Owners and Occupiers), to identify those hereditaments with respect to which there would at a particular time be more than one occupier or more than one owner.
(3) An authority may authorise a contractor to prepare and serve demand notices and any further notice which is to be treated under the Regulations as if it were a demand notice (where the relevant conditions ceased to be fulfilled as regards the ratepayer and the hereditament concerned, and have been fulfilled again in the relevant year), and where appropriate for these purposes to exercise the functions—
(a) of determining whether the relevant conditions are fulfilled with respect to any person as regards a hereditament;
(b) where a person is a ratepayer of the authority as regards more than one hereditament, of serving a single demand notice in relation to the amounts payable with respect to all, or any two or more, of those hereditaments;
(c) of serving a demand notice before the beginning of the chargeable financial year to which the notice relates;
(d) subject to paragraph (4) below, of estimating or calculating the amount payable for a chargeable financial year or part of a chargeable financial year in relation to a ratepayer, the authority and a hereditament;
(e) of determining in accordance with Part I of the Schedule the instalments by which an estimate of the amount payable is required to be paid;
(f) subject to article 67, of reaching agreement with a ratepayer as to the manner of payment of an estimate of the amount payable and as to provision for the cessation or adjustment of payments, the making of fresh estimates, and the treatment of any sums paid in accordance with the Schedule before the agreement was entered into;
(g) where regulation 3 of the the Regulations (Joint Owners and Occupiers) applies with respect to a hereditament and the persons who are jointly and severally liable to pay the non-domestic rate are liable as partners or trustees, of giving a notice which falls to be given under Part II of the Regulations (Billing) severally to each or any of the owners or occupiers concerned, or jointly to the partnership or trust;
(h) where a notice which falls to be given under Part II of the Regulations is given to more than one person in respect of the same amount, of notifying that fact to each such person; and
(i) where, under Part II of the Regulations as applied by regulation 3 of the the Regulations, there falls to be repaid a sum paid under a notice given to any persons jointly and severally liable as partners or trustees, of repaying the sum in question to any one or more of those persons.
(4) For the purposes of section 47 of the Act (discretionary relief) and section 49 of the Act (reduction or remission of liability), an authority may authorise a contractor to determine any amount which a ratepayer would, apart from those sections, be liable to pay by way of non-domestic rate, but may not authorise a contractor to exercise any other functions relating to the determination of a ratepayer’s entitlement under those sections to any relief or reduction or remission of liability.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1996/1880/article/51 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/local-authorities-contracting-out-of-tax-billing-collection-and-enforcement-functions-order-1996/article-51
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.