The Valuation and Community Charge Tribunals (Transfer of Jurisdiction) Regulations 1989

• Citation: S.I. 1989/440
• Sections: 15

Section 1 Citation and commencement

These Regulations may be cited as the Valuation and Community Charge Tribunals (Transfer of Jurisdiction) Regulations 1989 and shall come into force on 1st May 1989.

Section 2 Interpretation

In these Regulations–

“ the Act ” means the Local Government Finance Act 1988;

“the 1967 Act ” means the General Rate Act 1967;

“the transfer date” means 1st May 1989;

“tribunal” means a valuation and community charge tribunal established by regulations under Schedule 11 to the Act.

Section 3 Transfer of jurisdiction

(1) On and after the transfer date, tribunals shall (in addition to the jurisdiction conferred on them by section 23 of the Act) exercise the jurisdiction conferred on local valuation courts by–

(a) sections 73(2)(b), 74(3), 75 and 83(6) of the 1967 Act ;

(b) section 2(5B) and paragraph 11(2) of Schedule 1 to the Rating (Disabled Persons) Act 1978 ;

(c) regulation 6 of the Mixed Hereditaments (Certificate) Regulations 1967 ;

(d) section 78 of the Land Drainage Act 1976 ; and on that date the local valuation courts shall be wound up.

(2) The jurisdiction transferred by paragraph (1) shall be exercised as regards appeals or applications instituted or made before, as well as those instituted or made on or after, the transfer date.

Section 4 Transitional provisions

(1) This regulation applies to any appeal or application instituted or made under any of the provisions mentioned in regulation 3(1).

(2) Any appeal or application which was instituted before the transfer date shall be continued as an appeal to the valuation and community charge tribunal established for the area for which was constituted the local valuation panel from among whose members the local valuation court to hear and determine the appeal fell to be convened.

(3) In relation to any appeal or, as the case may be, application made under a provision mentioned in paragraph (1)(a) to (c) of regulation 3 which is instituted on or after the transfer date, subject to the provisions mentioned in paragraph (4) the tribunal which is to hear and determine the appeal or application shall be the tribunal established for the area in which the hereditament is situated.

(4) The provisions referred to in paragraph (3) (which are saved by regulation 6(4)) are–

(a) regulation 3 (which deals with extensive undertakings) of the Rating Appeals (Local Valuation Courts) Regulations 1956 ; and

(b) regulation 3 (which deals with contiguous and neighbouring hereditaments) of the Local Valuation Panels (Jurisdiction) Regulations 1967 .

(5) In relation to any appeal under section 78 of the Land Drainage Act 1976 which is instituted on or after the transfer date, the tribunal which is to hear and determine the appeal shall be determined in accordance with section 78 of the Land Drainage Act 1976 and the Drainage Rates (Appeals) Regulations 1970 (which are saved by regulation 6(4)), in each case as amended as provided by regulation 6.

Section 5 Transitional provisions

Schedule 1 shall have effect to provide for continuity of employment in respect of the employees of local valuation panels.

Section 6 Consequential and supplementary amendments, savings and repeals

(1) The enactments and instruments mentioned in Schedule 2 shall on the transfer date be amended as provided in that Schedule.

(2) Notwithstanding section 117(1) of and Part I of Schedule 13 to the Act, the 1967 Act shall continue to have effect on and after 1st April 1990 in respect of appeals and applications under the enactments referred to in regulation 3(1) instituted before that date.

(3) But sections 88(1) to (4), sections 89 to 92 and 94 of the 1967 Act, section 79(8) of the Land Drainage Act 1976 and regulation 4(3) of the Rating Appeals (Local Valuation Courts) Regulations 1956 shall not have effect on and after the transfer date.

(4) Nothing in section 117(1) of the Act or in this regulation shall affect the Rating Appeals (Local Valuation Courts) Regulations 1956, the Local Valuation Panels (Jurisdiction) Regulations 1967 and the Drainage Rates (Appeals) Regulations 1970 (in each case as amended by Schedule 2) as they apply in respect of appeals and applications to which regulation 4 applies.

Section 1

This Schedule applies to any person (an “employee”) who immediately before the transfer date is employed under a contract of employment with a local valuation panel.

Section 2

The contract of employment between an employee and the local valuation panel shall not be terminated by that panel ceasing to exist, but shall have effect from the transfer date as if originally made between the employee and the tribunal (“the appropriate tribunal”) established by regulation 3 of the Valuation and Community Charge Tribunals Regulations 1989 for the area for which that panel was established.

Section 3

Without prejudice to paragraph 2–

(a) all the rights, powers, duties and liabilities of the panel under or in connection with a contract to which this Schedule applies shall on the transfer date by virtue of this paragraph be transferred to the appropriate tribunal; and

(b) anything done before the transfer date by or in relation to the panel in respect of that contract or the employee shall be deemed from that date to have been done by or in relation to the tribunal.

Section 4

Paragraphs 2 and 3 are without prejudice to any right of an employee to terminate his contract of employment if a substantial change is made to his detriment in his working conditions; but no such right shall arise by reason only of the change of employer effected by this Schedule.

Section 1

The enactments and instruments mentioned in Table 1 shall be amended as indicated in that Table.

GENERAL RATE ACT 1967

(2) The procedure of a valuation and community charge tribunal shall, subject to the Rating Appeals (Local Valuation Courts) Regulations 1956 and to this section, be such as the tribunal may determine; and unless subsection (2A) of this subsection applies, the tribunal

(a) shall sit in public, unless the tribunal otherwise orders on the application of any party to the appeal and upon being satisfied that the interests of that party would be prejudically affected and

(b) may take evidence on oath and shall have power to administer oaths.

(2A) This subsection applies where all the parties who would be entitled to appear as provided in subsection (4) of this section have agreed that the appeal shall be determined on the basis of written representations.

(2B) Where subsection (2A) applies, subsection (4) shall not apply, and the appeal shall be determined by a valuation and community charge tribunal constituted as provided in section 88(5) of this Act on the basis of any representations submitted in writing by the parties.

(5) Subject to subsection (6) of this section, the tribunal as constituted to hear or determine an appeal shall consist of–

(a) a chairman appointed as provided by regulations for the time being in force under Schedule 11 to the Local Government Finance Act 1988, and

(b) two other members of the tribunal.

(6) With the consent of all the persons appearing before a tribunal on the hearing of an appeal, the appeal may be heard and determined by any two of the persons mentioned in subsection (5) of this section; but if the members of a tribunal so constituted are unable to agree on a decision, the appeal shall be reheard by a differently constituted tribunal.

(1) Where by virtue of the foregoing regulation the sending of a certificate has effect as an appeal to a valuation and community charge tribunal, it shall be the duty of the president of that tribunal to make arrangements for an appeal under these regulations to be heard and determined.

(1A) The procedure of a valuation and community charge tribunal shall, subject to the Rating Appeals (Local Valuation Courts) Regulations 1956 as applied and adapted by the Valuation and Community Charge Tribunals (Transfer of Jurisdiction) Regulations 1989 and to this regulation, be such as the tribunal may determine; and the tribunal–

(a) shall sit in public, unless the tribunal otherwise order on the application of any party to the appeal and upon being satisfied that the interests of that party would be prejudicially affected; and

(b) may take evidence on oath and shall have power to administer oaths.

Section 2

The Local Valuation Panels (Jurisdiction) Regulations 1967 shall be amended by the substitution for references to a local valuation panel or a local valuation court of references to a valuation and community charge tribunal.

Section 3

(1) In the Lands Tribunal Rules 1975 –

(a) in rule 2–

(i) in the definitions of “drainage rates appeal” and “rating appeal”, after “local valuation court” there shall be added “or valuation and community charge tribunal”;

(ii) for the definition of “valuation proceedings” there shall be substituted–

“valuation proceedings” means proceedings before a local valuation court or a valuation and community charge tribunal, or proceedings begun before a local valuation court and continued before a valuation and community charge tribunal;

(b) for the references to a local valuation court in rules 9(1), 37, 42(1) and 54(2), in Form 2 in Schedule 1 and item 6 of Schedule 2 there shall be substituted a reference to a valuation and community charge tribunal.

(2) The amendments made by paragraph (1)(b) shall not have effect in relation to decisions of a local valuation court made before the transfer date.

Section 4

The Land Drainage Act 1976 shall be amended as indicated in Table 2.

(a) the clerk of the valuation and community charge tribunal established in accordance with regulations under Schedule 11 to the Local Government Finance Act 1988 for the area in which the land to which the determination relates is situated, or

(b) where different parts of that land are situated in different areas for which such tribunals are established, the clerk of such one of those tribunals as may be determined by or under the Drainage Rates (Appeals) Regulations 1970.

(1) It shall be the duty of the president of the valuation and community charge tribunal to whose clerk a notice of objection is transmitted in pursuance of section 78 above to arrange for the appeal to which the notice relates to be heard and determined; and subsections (5) and (6) of section 88 of the General Rate Act 1967 shall apply to the constitution the tribunal to hear and determine the appeal and to the rehearing of the appeal in case of such failure to agree as is mentioned in the said subsection (6).

(2) The procedure of a valuation and community charge tribunal shall subject to the Drainage Rates (Appeals) Regulations 1970 be such as the tribunal may determine; and the tribunal–

(a) shall sit in public, unless the tribunal otherwise orders on the application of any party to the appeal and upon being satisfied that the interests of that party would be prejudicially affected; and

(b) may take evidence on oath and shall have power to administer oaths.

Section 5

The Drainage Rates (Appeals) Regulations 1970 shall have effect as if they were amended as follows:–

(i) in regulation 2, by the substitution of the definitions set out in column 2 of Table 3 for the definitions mentioned in column 1:

(ii) in regulation 2, by the omission of the definition of “panel” and by the substitution of “tribunal area” for “panel area” in the definition of “undivided hereditament”;

(iii) in regulations 3 to 9 and 11 to 16 by the substitution of the words in column 2 of Table 4 for the words in column 1:–