General Rate Act 1967

Section 50.

SCHEDULE 10PAYMENT OF RATES ON DWELLING BY INSTALMENTS.

1Subject to paragraph 2 of this Schedule, a notice by any person under section 50(1) of this Act may be given—

(a)at any time not earlier than 1st February preceding the beginning of a year and not later than 30th April in that year; or

(b)in the year in which he first becomes qualified to serve such a notice in respect of the hereditament in question, on any later date in that year which is not later than the twenty-eighth day after he first became so qualified;

and the effective date of the notice—

(i)where it is given less than three months before the end of a rate period, shall be the first day of the next succeeding rate period ;

(ii)in any other case shall be the date of the giving of the notice.

2Where under paragraph 1 of this Schedule a notice under the said section 50(1) would fall to be given at a time before the first occasion when rates are levied in respect of the hereditament in question, the notice may be given at any time not later than the fourteenth day after service of the first demand note for such rates, and the effective date of the notice shall not be earlier than the date of the service of that demand note.

3Where a notice under the said section 50(1) in respect of any hereditament is duly given to the rating authority by a person qualified to give it, the authority shall—

(a)in respect of the year in which the effective date of that notice falls (or so much of that year as falls after that date); and

(b)in respect of each subsequent year until that notice ceases to be in force,

send to that person a statement in writing specifying the number of the instalments by which the rates are to be paid in the year in question, the respective dates on which those instalments are to become due, and the respective amounts of those instalments:

Provided that, where the notice under the said section 50(1) is given after the service of a demand note for rates for the rate period in which the effective date of that notice falls, the requirements of sub-paragraph (a) of this paragraph shall be deemed to be satisfied if that demand note included the statement required in consequence of the notice.

4The number of the instalments specified in any statement under paragraph 3 of this Schedule—

(a)if the effective date of the notice under the said section 50(1) is after 30th April, shall in the year in which that effective date falls be not less than the number of complete months between that date and the end of that year (including, if that date is the first day of a month, that month) reduced, if that number of months is three, by one or, if that number of months is four or more, by two ;

(b)in any other case shall be not less than ten;

and the date specified in any such statement for the first instalment thereunder shall not be earlier than ten days after the date when the statement is sent, and the interval between any two of the instalment dates shall not be less than one month.

5The amounts specified in any statement under the said paragraph 3 for the instalments payable in the year or part of a year to which the statement relates—

(a)if that statement relates to a whole year and that year includes two or more rate periods, shall be fixed on the basis that the amount in the pound of all rates levied in that year will be that of the rates levied in the first of those rate periods ; or

(b)if that statement relates to part of a year and that part of a year includes the whole or part of two or more rate periods, shall be fixed on the basis that the amount in the pound of the rates levied in any rate period or periods beginning after the date of the sending of the statement will be the amount in the pound, or the average of the amounts in the pound, of the rates levied in any rate period or periods in that year beginning before that date ; and

(c)in every case, shall (apart from any rebate under section 49 of this Act) be equal, except that the rating authority may round off the amount of any of those instalments other than either the first or the last to the nearest shilling and adjust the amount of the first or, as the case may be, last of those instalments accordingly;

but the rating authority may by a further statement in writing make such adjustments in those amounts as may from time to time be necessary in consequence of any change in the amount the occupier is liable to pay by way of rates in respect of that year or part of a year.

6A notice under the said section 50(1) shall cease to be in force—

(a)if the person by whom it was given withdraws it by a further notice in writing to the rating authority ; or

(b)if—

(i)any instalment is not paid on or before the date when it is due ; or

(ii)the rating authority are satisfied that the person aforesaid is no longer qualified to give a notice under the said section 50(1) in respect of the hereditament in question,

and the rating authority give notice in writing to that person that, by reason of the default or, as the case may be his ceasing to be so qualified, the notice under the said section 50(1) is being treated as cancelled;

and upon the giving of any notice under this paragraph any amount due by way of rates in respect of the hereditament shall be recoverable as if no notice had been given under the said section 50(1), without prejudice, however, to the right to give a fresh notice under the said section 50(1) in accordance with paragraph 1(a) of this Schedule.