Explanatory note

Under Part III of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 rates are payable on unoccupied hereditaments if they fall within a class prescribed by regulations made by the Secretary of State and the other conditions set out in section 45 apply.

These regulations prescribe a class consisting of all buildings or parts of buildings except those which comply with any condition set out in regulation 2(2).

The hereditament exempt from unoccupied property rates by virtue of the conditions include those unoccupied for less than three months; those where occupation is prohibited by law; those kept vacant by reason of certain action taken by the Crown or a local or public authority; listed buildings and those subject to preservation notices; scheduled monuments; industrial hereditaments; and those which the owner holds only as a personal representative, liquidator or trustee under a deed of arrangement, or where the owner is the subject of insolvency proceedings.

The exemptions replicate the exemptions conferred by Schedule 1 to the General Rate Act 1967, the Rating (Exemption of Unoccupied Property) Regulations 1967 (S.I. 1967/954) and the Rating (Exemption of Unoccupied Industrial and Storage Hereditaments) Regulations 1985 (S.I. 1985/258). In addition, hereditaments whose rateable value is less than £1,000 are also to be exempt.

Regulation 3 provides that any appeal to a valuation and community charge tribunal against a completion notice (served by the charging authority in order to determine the day on which a new or newly altered building is deemed to become unoccupied) is to be dismissed unless initiated within 28 days of service of the notice, or 1st April 1990, whichever is the later.