Rates Liability
Local Government Act 1941
Part I Preliminary and General
- Short title and collective citation.
(1) This Act may be cited as the Local Government Act, 1941.
(2) This Act and the Acts mentioned in the First Schedule to this Act may be cited together as the Local Government Acts, 1925 to 1941.
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Definitions.
(1) In this Act—
the expression “the Minister” means the Minister for Local Government and Public Health;
the expression “the Act of 1923” means the Local Government (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1923 (No. 9 of 1923);
the expression “the Act of 1925” means the Local Government Act, 1925 (No. 5 of 1925);
the expression “the Act of 1926” means the Local Authorities (Officers and Employees) Act, 1926, (No. 39 of 1926);
the expression “the Act of 1927” means the Local Government Act, 1927 (No. 3 of 1927);
the word “hereditament” includes a tenement;
the word “prescribed” means prescribed by the Minister by regulations made under this Act.
(2) Each of the following bodies (whether corporate or unincorporated) shall be a local authority for the purposes of this Act and the Acts which may be collectively cited with this Act, that is to say:—
(a) a council of a county, a corporation of a county or other borough, a council of an urban district, a public assistance authority, commissioners of a town, a port sanitary authority, and
(b) a committee or joint committee or board or joint board (whether corporate or unincorporated) appointed by or under statute to perform the functions or any of the functions of any of the bodies mentioned in the immediately preceding paragraph of this subsection, and
(c) a committee or joint committee or board or joint board (whether corporate or unincorporated), other than a vocational education committee or a committee of agriculture of or appointed by one or more of the bodies mentioned in paragraph (a) of this subsection.
(3) No body which by any enactment in force immediately before the commencement of this section is declared to be a local authority for the purpose of any particular provision of the Acts which may be collectively cited with this Act shall cease to be a local authority for such purpose by reason only of the provisions of the immediately preceding sub–section of this section.
(4) Notwithstanding anything contained in this section, every reference in this Act to a meeting, member, committee, member of a committee, or, meeting of a committee of a local authority shall, where the local authority in question is a corporation of a county or other borough, be construed as a reference to a meeting, member, committee, member of a committee, or meeting of a committee (as the case may be) of the council established by law in respect of such county or other borough.
- Commencement.
This Act shall come into operation on such day or days as may be fixed therefor by order or orders of the Minister either generally or with reference to any particular purpose or provision and different days may be so fixed for different purposes and different provisions of this Act.
- Regulations.
The Minister may make regulations prescribing any matter or thing which is referred to in this Act as prescribed or to be prescribed.
Part V Provisions in Relation to Rates
- Restriction on application of Local Government (Rates on Small Dwellings) Act, 1928.
A hereditament which but for this section would, as regards any local financial year, be a small dwelling within the meaning of the Local Government (Rates on Small Dwellings) Act, 1928 (No. 4 of 1928), shall not, as regards that local financial year, be a small dwelling within the meaning of the said Act of on the 1st day of April in that local financial year such hereditament is vested in the Irish Sailors and Soldiers Land Trust.
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Discharge of rates by setting off.
Where a sum is due to any person by a local authority and, at the same time, a sum is due to such local authority by such person in respect of rates or would be so due but for the fact that such sum has been advanced and paid to such local authority by a rate collector, the former sum may be set off against the latter either, as may be appropriate, in whole or in part.
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Distress in respect of rates.
(1) In this section—
the word “rates” does not include rates due to a local authority, not being the commissioners of a town, in respect of a hereditament which is a small dwelling within the meaning of the Local Government (Rates on Small Dwellings) Act, 1928 (No. 4 of 1928), and which is occupied by a person who is not the owner thereof within the meaning of the said Act;
the expression “sum for rates” means a sum due to a local authority in respect of rates or which would be so due but for having been discharged by a rate collector;
the expression “the costs” means all costs and charges, without any limit save that they be reasonable, which at any particular time have been incurred in or incidental to the taking, keeping, transporting or selling the distress in relation to which such expression is used.
(2) Where the person liable to pay a sum for rates for which demand has been duly made does not pay such sum within six days after the making of such demand, the rate collector concerned may give to such person notice that he intends, if such person does not pay such sum within fourteen days from the giving of such notice, to levy such sum by distress under this section.
(3) Where a person to whom a notice has been given under the immediately preceding subsection of this section does not pay the sum for rates to which such notice relates within fourteen days from the giving of such notice the rate collector concerned may, without any further or other authority than the warrant authorising him to collect such sum, levy such sum, together with the costs either by distress and sale of any goods, animals, or other chattels (whether of such person or of another person) found upon the hereditament in respect of which such sum is due or by distress and sale of any goods, animals, or other chattels of such person wheresoever found.
(4) For the purposes of a levy by distress under this section, a rate collector may break open in the daytime any house or premises to which he has been refused admission or to which he is unable to gain admission by any other lawful means.
(5) A rate collector may require a member of the Gárda Síochána to assist him in the exercise of his powers under this section and such member shall comply with such requirement.
(6) A distress taken under this section in respect of a sum for rates shall be kept for five days at any place whatsoever which the rate collector concerned thinks proper. whether such place is or is not a pound maintained under the Pounds (Provision and Maintenance) Act, 1935 (No. 17 of 1935), but, if during such five days such sum together with the costs is discharged, the distress shall be handed over to the person who was liable to pay such sum.
(7) If the sum for rates in respect of which a distress is taken under this section together with the costs is not discharged during the five days mentioned in the immediately preceding sub-section of this section, the following provisions shall apply and have effect, that is to say:—
(a) such distress shall be sold by public auction in any place whatsoever which the rate collector concerned thinks proper, and may be removed to such place for the purposes of such sale,
(b) pending such sale such distress may be kept at any place whatsoever which such rate collector thinks proper, whether such place is or is not a pound maintained under the Pounds (Provision and Maintenance) Act, 1935 (No. 17 of 1935),
(c) the proceeds of such sale shall be applied towards discharging, firstly, the costs and, secondly, such sum for rates, and
(d) the balance (if any) of the proceeds of such sale shall be paid over to the person who was liable to pay such sum.
(8) Where a distress taken and sold under this section consists of or includes goods, animals, or other chattels not belonging to the person who is liable to pay the sum for rates in respect of which such distress was taken, the owner thereof shall be entitled to recover from the said person by action the value of such goods, animals, or other chattels together with such damages as such owner shall have suffered by reason of having been deprived such goods, animals, or other chattels.
(9) Nothing done under and in accordance with this section shall be questioned on the ground that it is not done under or in accordance with any other enactment.
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Amendment of rates.
(1) A local authority by whom rates have been made for the service of a local financial year may from time to time, but not later than the expiration of the next local financial year, amend such rates so as to make them conform with the enactments relating thereto and in exercise of that power may, in particular, make any amendments rendered necessary by—
(a) misdescriptions, inclusions of the names of persons who ought not to have been rated, and clerical, arithmetical, and other errors,
(b) omissions (including complete omissions of hereditaments and omissions of the names of persons who ought to have been rated),
(c) the occupation of previously unoccupied hereditaments,
(d) changes in occupation.
(2) Whenever a local authority propose to make an amendment under this section—
(a) such local authority shall give notice of the proposed amendment to every person who, in their opinion, is concerned,
(b) every such notice shall contain an intimation that written objections to the proposed amendment may be sent to such local authority within seven days after the giving of such notice, and
(c) before making such amendment, such local authority shall consider the objections (if any) received as a result of any such notice.
(3) A local authority shall give notice to the Commissioner of Valuation of every amendment made by them under this section which involves any departure from the particulars stated in the relevant valuation list prepared by the said Commissioner under the Valuation Acts.
(4) Every person aggrieved by any amendment under this section shall have the same right (if any) of appeal therefrom as he would have had upon the making of the relevant rates if those rates had comprised such amendment and, as regards such person, the rate in respect of which he is aggrieved shall be considered to have been made at the time when notice of such amendment was given to him.
(5) A local authority shall make such refunds or give such credits (as the case may require) in respect of rates and shall be entitled to make such recoveries of rates as from time to time become appropriate in consequence of any amendments or appeals under this section.
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Rating of divided hereditaments.
(1) Where a hereditament (in this sub-section referred to as the divided hereditament) included in a revised valuation list received by a local authority becomes, before being rated for the service of the local financial year next after the receipt of such list, by reason of division proper to be rated in parts as two or more separate hereditaments, such local authority shall not be precluded from rating such separate hereditaments separately for the service of such local financial year by reason only of their not being separately included in such list, and where such local authority propose to rate as aforesaid such separate hereditaments, the following provisions shall apply and have effect, that is to say:—
(a) such local authority shall apportion, in such manner as they consider reasonable having regard to all the circumstances of the case, the valuation under the Valuation Acts for the time being existing in respect of the divided hereditament as between such separate hereditaments and shall rate each of such separate hereditaments according to the part (in this sub-section referred to as the apportioned valuation) of such valuation assigned to it on such apportionment,
(b) where in the next relevant revised valuation list received by such local authority there appears in respect of any of such separate hereditaments a valuation which is less or greater than the apportioned valuation, such local authority shall amend the rate made in respect thereof accordingly.
(2) Where a hereditament (in this sub-section referred to as the divided hereditament) in respect of which a person (in this sub-section referred to as the former occupier) is rated by a local authority for the service of a local financial year becomes before the expiration of such year by reason of division proper to be rated in parts as two or more separate hereditaments, the following provisions shall have effect, that is to say:—
(a) the former occupier shall be liable for the whole of the rate for the service of such local financial year in respect of each (if any) of such separate hereditaments which he continues to occupy after such division,
(b) the rate for the service of such local financial year in respect of each (if any) of such separate hereditaments which the former occupier does not continue to occupy after such division shall be treated as being made up of two parts, that is to say:—
(i) a part which the former occupier shall be liable to pay and which shall consist of so much of the rate for the service of such local financial year in respect of such separate hereditament as bears to the whole of that rate the same proportion as the former occupier’s period of occupation of such separate hereditament during such local financial year bears to the whole of that year, and
(ii) a part which the person occupying such separate hereditament after such division shall be liable to pay and which shall consist of the remainder of the said rate,
(c) for the purpose of calculating the rate in respect of any such separate hereditament, such local authority shall, if necessary, determine the valuation thereof by apportioning, in such manner as they consider reasonable having regard to all the circumstances of the case, the valuation of the divided hereditament between such separate hereditament and the remainder of the divided hereditament, and
(d) such local authority shall amend the rate made by them in respect of the divided hereditament for the service of such local financial year so as to give effect to the foregoing provisions and, in addition, where the valuation of the divided hereditament is apportioned as aforesaid, such local authority shall, on receipt of the next relevant revised valuation list, make such further amendments as may be necessary for rendering the amendments previously made under this paragraph conformable with the valuations appearing in such revised valuation list.
(3) Where a hereditament in respect of which sub-section (1) or (2) of this section is applicable includes agricultural land, the power of apportionment under the said sub-section shall include a power to apportion the valuation of such agricultural land and the said sub-section shall have effect accordingly.
(4) A local authority shall make such refunds or give such credits (as the case may require) in respect of rates and shall be entitled to make such recoveries of rates as from time to time become appropriate in consequence of amendments made under this section.
(5) Whenever a local authority apportion a valuation under this section, they shall give notice of the apportionment to the Commissioner of Valuation and to every person who, in their opinion, is concerned.
(6) In this section the expression “revised valuation list” means a revised valuation list prepared by the Commissioner of Valuation under the Valuation Acts.
- Giving of notices
under this Part of this Act.
(1) Where the name of any person to whom a notice is required to be given under this Part of this Act cannot be ascertained by reasonable inquiry, such notice may, in lieu of being addressed to such person by name, be addressed to such person by the use of the expression “the owner” or the expression “the occupier” (as may be appropriate) or by the use of any other general words indicating who such person is.
(2) The following provisions shall apply and have effect in relation to the giving of any notice required to be given under this Part of this Act, that is to say:—
(a) where such notice is addressed to a person by his name, it may be given either—
(i) by delivering it to such person, or
(ii) by sending it in a prepaid registered letter addressed to such person at the address at which he ordinarily resides,
(b) where such notice is addressed to a person by his name but such person is absent or abroad or his address is unknown and cannot be ascertained by reasonable inquiry, it may be given either—
(i) by delivering it to an agent of such person, or
(ii) by sending it in a prepaid registered letter addressed to an agent of such person at the address where such agent ordinarily resides, and
(c) where such notice is not addressed to such person by his name or where, such person being absent or abroad or his address being unknown and not being ascertainable by reasonable inquiry, no agent of such person is known, such notice may be given by delivering it at the hereditament to which it relates to some person over the age of sixteen years resident or employed in such hereditament or by posting it on or near such hereditament.
(3) For the purposes of this section, a company registered under the Companies Acts, 1908 to 1924, shall be deemed to be ordinarily resident at its registered office, and every other body corporate and every unincorporated body shall be deemed to be ordinarily resident at its principal office or place of business.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 1946
12. The county rate of council of county.
(1) The poor rate raised pursuant to section 11 of this Act by the council of a county shall be known as the county rate.
(2) Subsection (1) of this section shall be construed as effecting a change of name only and shall not prejudice the existence of the poor rate nor the effect of any reference to it in any statutory or other enactment, but, for the purposes of conforming to such change of name, for every reference to the poor rate in any resolution, notice, rate book or other document passed or used by the council of a county in the making, levying, collecting or recovery of rates, there shall be substituted, in the case of the county rate, a reference to that rate, and every form used for the purpose of the making, levying, collecting or recovery of poor rate shall, in its application in respect of the county rate be amended accordingly.
[(2A) For the purposes of the application by subsection (2) of this section of the law relating to the collection and recovery of rates, a reference in section 152 of the Grand Jury (Ireland) Act, 1836, as incorporated by section 73 of the Poor Relief (Ireland) Act, 1838, to a notice subscribed with the name and abode of the collector shall mean and be deemed always to have meant the name and office or place of residence (including the dwelling house) of the collector; and reference to the money demanded being aid to the collector at his house or office shall be satisfied if the said money be paid at such place as is specified in the notice in that behalf.]
14. Rates on vacant premises in county.
(1) Where a hereditament […] which is not small dwelling within the meaning of the Local Government (Rates on Small Dwellings) Act, 1928 (No.4 of 1928), is unoccupied at the making of the county rate, such rate shall be made upon the person (in this section referred to as the owner) who is for the time being entitled to occupy the hereditament and, upon such rate being paid by the owner, he shall be entitled to claim and receive from the council of the county a refund of one-twelfth of such rate in respect of every completed month (reckoned from any day of one month to the corresponding day of the next month) during which the hereditament is unoccupied either for the purpose of the execution of additions, alterations or repairs thereto or because the owner is bona fide unable to obtain a suitable tenant therefor, in the case of a hereditament to which the Rent Restrictions Act, 1946 (No. 4 of 1946), for the time being applies, at the maximum rent for the time being permitted under that Act or, in the case of any other hereditament, at a reasonable rent.
[(1A) For the purposes of subsection (1) reference to county rate shall include a rate adopted by a city and county council.
(1B) A local authority may—
(a) specify a local electoral area or local electoral areas within its administrative area where owners of vacant premises shall be entitled to claim and receive a refund of differing proportion of the county rate to that referred to in subsection (1), and
(b) determine the proportion of the refund to apply in respect of each specified local electoral area or local electoral areas in accordance with paragraph (a).
(1C) The specifying of a local electoral area or local electoral areas and the determination of the proportion of the refund shall be a reserved function.]
(2) Where—
(a) a rate is made by virtue of this section on the owner of an unoccupied hereditament, and
(b) the hereditament is subsequently let by or on behalf of the owner, and
(c) the rate or any part thereof is in arrear and unpaid,
the rate collector by whom the rate is collectible may, in addition to and without prejudice to any other remedy for the recovery of the amount of the rate so in arrear and unpaid, serve either personally or by post on, the occupier of the hereditament a notice stating the said amount so in arrear and unpaid and requiring the occupier to pay to the rate collector or his successor in office all rent then due or thereafter to become due by him in respect of the hereditament until the said amount is by such payment or otherwise discharged, and thereupon the rate collector or his successor in office shall have the exclusive right to recover, receive and give a good discharge for all rent required by the notice to be paid to him.
(3) A rate made by virtue of this section on the owner of an unoccupied hereditament, shall not be invalidated by any error or defect in the statement of the name of the owner or by the use of the description “the owner” without any name or addition, and the rate shall be recoverable from the owner notwithstanding any such error or defect or the use of any such description.
[(4) The Minister may make regulations specifying the financial considerations and administrative and other procedures to apply in relation to the performance by a local authority of functions to which subsections (1B) and (1C) relate.]
18. The municipal rate of urban authority.
(1) An urban authority shall from time to time make, assess and levy equally over their urban area, in accordance with this Part of this Act, such rate (to be known as the municipal rate) as may be necessary for the purpose of supplying any deficiency (whether actual or prospective) in the municipal fund.
(2) Subject to the provisions of this Part of this Act, the law for the time being in force in relation to the making, assessment, levying, collection and recovery of the poor rate shall apply respectively in relation to the making, assessment, levying, collection and recovery of the municipal rate by an urban authority.
[(2A) For the purposes of the application by subsection (2) of this section of the law relating to the collection and recovery of rates, a reference in section 152 of the Grand Jury (Ireland) Act, 1836, as incorporated by section 73 of the Poor Relief (Ireland) Act, 1838, to a notice subscribed with the name and abode of the collector shall mean and be deemed always to have meant the name and office or place of residence (including the dwelling house) of the collector; and reference to the money demanded being paid to the collector at his or her house or office shall be satisfied if the said money be paid at such place as is specified in the notice in that behalf
(3) Notwithstanding anything contained in section 3 of the Enforcement of Court Orders Act, 1926 (No. 18 of 1926), execution orders within the meaning of that Act in proceedings in the District Court for the recovery of moneys due in respect of the municipal rate of an urban authority shall, if the Court on the application of the person by whom the proceedings are brought so directs, be executed by that person.
(4) Subsection (7) of section 51 of the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, shall not apply or have effect in relation to any debt, claim or demand which is directly or indirectly payable by an urban authority out of the municipal rate.
(5) Every demand note for the municipal rate of an urban authority shall show separately on the front or the back thereof the portion of the rate in the pound of the said rate which is raised for any purpose in respect of which the Minister or the urban authority directs that it shall be so shown separately.
(6) Where, by virtue of section 3 of the Finance Act, 1944 (No. 18 of 1944), the expression “the municipal rate” occurs in any enactment specified in the Schedule to that Act, that expression shall be construed as including the rate leviable under this section.
19. Cesser of existing rates in urban area.
(1) Subject to subsection (2) of this section, all rates which, immediately before the commencement of this section, were leviable in an urban area shall cease to be leviable, but such cesser shall not prevent, prejudice or affect the collection or recovery of any portion of any such rate which immediately before such commencement remained due and unpaid and any such portion shall for the purposes of such collection or recovery be deemed to be arrears of the municipal rate.
(2) Subsection (1) of this section shall not extend or apply to charges (commonly called contract water rates) made for the supply of water to particular hereditaments for purposes other than domestic purposes or for the supply of water under special contract to any person not otherwise entitled to such supply.
(3) Where immediately before the commencement of this section there were two or more persons acting as rate collectors in an urban area, each of such persons shall be deemed to have been duly appointed immediately upon the commencement of this section to be a collector of the municipal rate in the urban area for such district as may be assigned to him upon the same terms of office (including terms relating to pension and superannuation rights) as he held office immediately before such commencement and, for the purposes of any enactment relating to superannuation or compensation for loss of office, this Act shall be deemed not to have operated to abolish his office or to alter his position materially to his detriment.
(4) Where immediately before the commencement of this section there was one person only acting as rate collector in an urban area such person shall be deemed to have been duly appointed immediately upon the commencement of this section to be the collector of the municipal rate in the urban area upon the same terms of office (including terms relating to pension and superannuation rights) as he held office immediately before such commencement and, for the purposes of any enactment relating to superannuation or compensation for loss of office, this Act shall be deemed not to have operated to abolish his office or to alter his position materially to his detriment.
20. Adjustment of rents in certain cases in urban area.
(1) Where a hereditament situated in on urban area is on the date of the commencement of this section, held (whether together with or without other premises) under a lease, which binds the lessor to pay or allow a deduction or set off against or otherwise to relieve the lessee from any rates (other than poor rate) payable in respect of the hereditament, all rent payable under the lease in respect of a period commencing on or after the date of the commencement of this section shall be reduced—
(a) in the case of an annual rent, by an amount equal to the amount of the rates (other than, poor rate) made by the urban authority in respect of the hereditament for the local financial year expiring at the commencement of this section to which the relief afforded to the lessee by the lease lawfully extended, and
(b) in the case of any rent other than an annual rent, by an amount which bears to the rates (other than poor rate) made by the urban authority in respect of the hereditament for the said local financial year to which the relief afforded to the lessee by the lease lawfully extended the same proportion as the period by reference to which such rent is calculated bears to one year.
(2) In this section, the word “lease” includes any contract of tenancy, whether in writing or verbal whereby the relation of landlord and tenant is created, and the words “lessor” and “lessee” respectively include the landlord of and the tenant under such tenancy.
28. Adjustment of rent in certain cases in town.
(1) Where a hereditament situated in a town which is not an urban district is, on the date of the commencement of this section, held (whether together with or without other premises) under a lease which binds the lessor to pay or allow a deduction or set off against or otherwise to relieve the lessee from any rates made by the commissioners of the town payable in respect of the hereditament, all rent payable under the lease in respect of a period commencing on or after the date of the commencement of this section shall be reduced—
(a) in the case of an annual rent, by an amount equal to the amount of the rates made by the commissioners of the town in respect of the hereditament for the local financial year expiring at the commencement of this section to which the relief afforded to the lessee by the lease lawfully extended, and
(b) in the case of any rent other than an annual rent, by an amount which bears to the rates made by the commissioners of the town in respect of the hereditament for the said local financial year to which the relief afforded to the lessee by the lease lawfully extended the same proportion as the period by reference to which such rent is calculated bears to one year.
(2) In this section, the word “lease” includes any contract of tenancy, whether in writing or verbal, whereby the relation of landlord and tenant is created, and the words “lessor” and “lessee” respectively include the landlord of and the tenant under such tenancy.
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29. Making of rate.
(1) A rating authority shall immediately prior to, or as soon as may be after, the beginning of each local financial year, make one rate for the whole financial year (upon the hereditaments liable for rates according to the valuation of each hereditament in the latest valuation list transmitted by the Commissioner of Valuation at the time of adoption of estimates of expenditure) and shall collect such rate in equal moieties, one such moiety for each half year of such local financial year.
(2) A rate made in accordance with subsection (1) of this section shall exclude a valuation which is a specified valuation within the meaning of section 2 of the Local Government (Financial Provisions) Act, 1978.]
74. Duty of rate collector to furnish certain particulars.
It shall be the duty of a collector of rates of a local authority, when so required by the authority, to ascertain and check and to furnish to the authority, when so required by the authority, to ascertain and check and to furnish to the authority, the particulars which the authority require for the preparation of any rate books relating to the area in which he collects rates or for the preparation of any lists which the authority are required by the Valuation Acts of furnish to the Commissioner of Valuation in respect of that area.