Citation and commencement

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Non-Domestic Rating (Caravan Sites) (Amendment) Regulations 1991 and shall come into force on 3rd April 1991.

Interpretation

2.-(1) In these Regulations-

"the 1991 Act" means the Caravans (Standard Community Charge and Rating) Act 1991;

"the Alteration and Appeals Regulations" means the Non-Domestic Rating (Alteration of Lists and Appeals)Regulations 1990(3);

"the commencement day" means 12th February 1991 (being the day on which the 1991 Act came into force);

"list" means a local non-domestic rating list;

"the principal Regulations" means the Non-Domestic Rating (Caravan Sites) Regulations 1990(4);

"Schedule 6" means Schedule 6 to the Local Government Finance Act 1988(5);

and "protected site" means a site which is a protected site for the purposes of Part I of the Caravan Sites Act 1968(6).

(2) Expressions used in these Regulations which are also used in the principal Regulations shall, unless the context otherwise requires, have the same meaning as in those Regulations.

Treatment of pitches etc. as one hereditament

3.-(1) The principal Regulations shall be amended as provided in this regulation.

(2) There shall be omitted-

(a)regulation 2(c); and

(b)in regulations 3(1) and 4(3), the word "leisure".

(3) In regulation 4(1)(a), for the words "occupied by persons other than the site operator" there shall be substituted the words "stationed on pitches which do not consist of domestic property".

Caravans on protected sites: effective date of entry in local rating lists

4.-(1) In this regulation and regulations 5 and 6 below, "relevant hereditament" means a hereditament comprising a pitch for a caravan which by virtue of the 1991 Act falls to be shown in a list, whether individually or (by virtue of the principal Regulations) as part of a larger hereditament.

(2) In relation to a relevant hereditament-

(a)the principal Regulations shall apply in respect of any period falling before the coming into force of regulation 3 as they would have applied with the modifications made by the amendments in that regulation if it had come into force on 1st April 1990; and

(b)any alteration of a list to show the hereditament in respect of a period before the commencement day shall, notwithstanding regulation 6 of the Alteration and Appeals Regulations(7), have effect from 1st April 1990, or, if later, the day which would have been applicable in accordance with regulation 4 of those Regulations(8) had the commencement day been 1st April 1990.

Alteration of rating list

5. In relation to a proposal for an alteration of a list by reason of a relevant hereditament, or any part of it, becoming liable to be included in a list as a consequence of the 1991 Act, regulation 9(4) of the Alteration and Appeals regulations shall apply as if, for the reference to the period of six months beginning on the day on which the material change of circumstances took place, there were substituted a reference to the period of six months beginning on the day on which these Regulations come into force.

Valuation

6.-(1) This regulation applies to a relevant hereditament which consists of an area of a protected site comprising a pitch or pitches which by virtue of section 1 of the 1991 Act has or have ceased to be domestic property.

(2) For the purposes of determining the rateable value of a hereditament to which this regulation applies, to be shown in a list for-

(a)the first day ("the relevant day") on or after 1st April 1990 on which the hereditament would have been liable to be shown in a list had the 1991 Act been in force, and

(b)each subsequent day before the first day on which a change takes place in any of the matters mentioned in paragraphs 2(7) of Schedule 6,

the material day for the purposes of paragraph 2(6) of that Schedule shall be the relevant day.

(3) Where in relation to a hereditament to which this regulation applies there has-

(a)since the relevant day, and

(b)before any alteration is made to a list in pursuance of regulation 4 above,

been a change in any of the matters mentioned in paragraph 2(7) of Schedule 6, in relation to any alteration in the list to reflect such a change-

(i)the material day for the purposes of paragraph 2(6) of Schedule 6 shall be the day on which the change giving rise to the alteration took place; and

(ii)paragraph 2B(1)(c) of Schedule 6 shall apply as if for the words from the beginning to "the proposal is made" there were substituted the words "for the day immediately before the day on which the change giving rise to the alteration took place".

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

The Caravans (Standard Community Charge and Rating Act) 1991 ("the 1991 Act") secures, with effect from 1st April 1990, that caravans stationed on protected sites may give rise to liability for non-domestic rates, instead of the standard community charge. Section 1(7) of the 1991 Act empowers the making of regulations with retrospective effect.

Accordingly, regulation 3 extends the scope of the Non-Domestic Rating (Caravan Sites) Regulations 1990 (which provide, inter alia, for pitches on certain caravan sites to be treated as a single hereditament, together with property occupied by the site operator) to include pitches which become liable to be rated as a result of the 1991 Act.

Regulation 4, in relation to such pitches, deems regulation 3 to have come into force on 1st April 1990, and enables alterations to non-domestic rating lists to be made with effect from that date.

Regulation 5 establishes that proposals to alter rating lists in consequence of the 1991 Act may be made within six months of the coming into force of the Regulations, and regulation 6 makes consequential provision for valuation matters.