Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1941 (repealed 5.11.1993)

Sections 6 & 8.

THIRD SCHEDULEU.K. Provisions applicable to Recovery of Expenses from Owners of Land

1A proportion of the expenses shall be recoverable as a debt due to His Majesty from each owner of land the value of which will be increased by the doing of the work on whom a notice in writing requiring payment thereof is served by the Minister within one year from the completion of the work, and shall, without prejudice to any other mode for the recovery thereof, be recoverable by the Minister summarily as a civil debt.

2A notice served for the purposes of the preceding paragraph shall specify the sum which the owner on whom it is served is required to pay and the land in respect of which he is required to pay it, and that sum shall not exceed either of the following limits, that is to say—

(a)the amount by which the value for agricultural purposes of the specified land will be increased by the doing of the work;

(b)the same proportion of the expenses as the amount aforesaid bears to the amount by which the value for agricultural purposes of all the land affected will be increased by the doing of the work.

3Subject to the provisions of the two next succeeding paragraphs, the sum specified in such a notice shall become recoverable at the expiration of three months from the date of the service thereof.

4If an owner on whom such a notice is served claims that none of the land in his ownership will be increased in value for agricultural purposes by the doing of the work, or that the sum specified in the notice exceeds either of the limits mentioned in paragraph 2 of this Schedule, he may, by notice in writing served on the Minister at any time within the said three months, require his claim to be referred for determination by a single arbitrator appointed by agreement between him and the Minister, or, in default of such agreement, by the President of the Chartered Surveyors’ Institution and, if he does so, no sum shall be recoverable from him until his claim has been so determined, and—

(a)if it is determined that none of the land in his ownership will be increased in value as aforesaid, no part of the expenses shall be recoverable from him;

(b)if it is determined that the sum specified exceeds either of the said limits, the sum recoverable from him shall be that sum less such amount as the arbitrator may determine to be requisite in order to bring it within those limits.

5An owner on whom a notice for the purposes of paragraph 1 of this Schedule is served may, by notice in writing served on the Minister at any time within the said three months, or, if he has claimed a reference under the last preceding paragraph, at any time within one month from the date on which his claim has been determined, elect to pay any sum recoverable from him under this Schedule, together with interest thereon from the date on which that amount would otherwise have become recoverable from him, by such number of equal annual instalments, not exceeding five, as may be specified in his notice:

(a)the first instalment shall be payable within one year from the last-mentioned date; and

(b)the rate of interest shall, in default of agreement between the owner and the Minister, be fixed by the Treasury.

6Any amount recoverable under the preceding provisions of this Schedule shall be a charge on the land specified in the relevant notice served for the purpose of paragraph 1 hereof, and the Minister shall, for the purpose of enforcing the charge, have the same powers and remedies under the M1Law of Property Act, 1925, and otherwise as he would have if he were a mortgagee by deed having powers of sale and lease, of accepting surrenders of leases, and of appointing a receiver.

7A notice to be served for the purposes of this Schedule may be served in any manner specified in [F1section one hundred and eight of the M2Land Drainage Act 1976], in relation to notices required or authorised to be served under or by virtue of that Act.

8In this Schedule the expression “owner” in relation to land means the person who is receiving the rack rent of the land, whether on his own account or as agent or trustee for any other person, or would so receive the rack rent of the land if it were let at a rack rent, and in this paragraph the expression “rack rent” has the same meaning as in the M3Public Health Act, 1936.