CHAPTER III. CHARGES UPON THE RENT-CHARGE. By sect. 69 of the principal Act every rent-charge in lieu of tithes is subject to all parliamentary, parochial, and county and other rates, charges, and assessments to which the tithes commuted for it were liable. The following, if not an exhaustive list, at all events contains the main charges upon the rent-charge by virtue of the above section. 1. Poor rate under 43 Eliz. c. 2, s. 1, including also county rate under 15 & 16 Vict. c. 81, borough rate under sect. 45 of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, highway rate under 5 & 6 Will. 4, c. 50, s. 27, school board rate under 33 & 34 Vict. c. 75, and any other rates and expenses provided by statute to be collected with and payable out of the poor rate.1 This rate is to be made on the net annual value of the rent-charge, i.e., what the rent-charge would let for to a hypothetical tenant from year to year, free from all usual tenant's rates and taxes, and deducting from this hypothetical rent— (1) All expenses of collection, including legal expenses; 1 See Farmer v. L. § N. W. Ry. Co., 20 Q. B. D. 788. Chap. III. (2) Losses by ultimate non-payment; (3) Ecclesiastical dues, first fruits and tenths; The following would fall under the head of tenant's rates, and would therefore have to be allowed for in estimating the net annual value: (1) Poor rates, including county, highway, and school board rates; (2) Income tax under Schedule B.; (3) General rate under Metropolis Local Management Act; (4) Lighting rate; (5) General district rate under the Public Health Act, 1875; (6) Rate for public libraries and museums. 2. Land tax (if not redeemed) under 38 Geo. 4, c. 5, s. 4, except in the case of rent-charge belonging to small livings exonerated from land tax under the statutes of Geo. III. It is usually assessed upon the basis of the poor rate valuation. 3. Property or income tax under 16 & 17 Vict. c. 34, scheds. A. and B., on the annual value of the rent-charge as defined in 5 & 6 Vict. c. 35, sched. A. No. 1, i.e., on the amount for which the rent-charge would let by the year at a rack rent, which would be the amount of rent 1 See Reg. v. Capel, 12 Ad. & E. 382; Hackney and Lamberhurst Commutation, 1 E. B. & E. 1; and Reg. v. Inhabitants of Sherford, L. R. 2 Q. B. 503. charge the tithe-owner actually receives after deducting Chap. III. the necessary and reasonable expenses of collection.1 From this annual value, again, are to be deducted tenths and other ecclesiastical dues, repairs of chancel, parochial rates, taxes and assessments, and land tax (if any) (5 & 6 Vict. c. 35, sched. A. No. 5, and 16 & 17 Vict. c. 34, s. 32). 4. General district rate under 38 & 39 Vict. c. 55 (Public Health Act, 1875), in any urban district, upon one quarter of the net annual value of the rent-charge; and in any rural district the rate for general expenses, which is payable out of the poor rate, and any rate for special expenses, including expenses under Allotments Acts, chargeable upon one-fourth of the net annual value. 5. General rate under 18 & 19 Vict. c. 120, s. 161 (the Metropolis Local Management Act), upon the net annual value, as the poor rate. 6. Lighting rate under the same section of the same Act, and 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 90. 7. Rate for public libraries and museums. These rates, charges, &c., are assessed either (1) Upon the occupier of the lands charged with the rent-charge under sect. 70 of the principal Act; or (2) Upon the owner of the rent-charge under sect. 8 of 7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 69. 1. If assessed upon the occupier of the lands, in de 1 Stevens v. Bishop, 19 Q. B. D. 442; C. A., 20 id. 442. Chap. III. fault of sooner payment of them by the owner of the rent-charge, they may be recovered from the occupier in the same way as poor rate assessed on him. may Any occupier who holds under a landlord, and pays them, may deduct the amount so paid from his rent; and any landlord or owner, who is also occupier, who has paid them, or from whose rent they have been deducted, deduct the amount from the rent-charge, or recover it by action from the owner of the rent-charge, under sect. 70 of the principal Act, which further enables the owner of the rent-charge to inspect and take copies of every assessment containing such rate or charge, and to appeal against the assessment, as any occupier or ratepayer can in the case of poor rate. 2. Where they are assessed upon the owner of the rent-charge, they may also, in default of payment by him, be recovered from any one or more of the occupiers of the lands out of which the rent-charge issues, in the same way as poor rate assessed upon them, subject to the following conditions: (1) Notice in writing must have been given to the occupier twenty-one days previous to any of the half-yearly days of payment of the rentcharge. (2) No occupier is liable to pay at any one time, in respect of such rates, &c., any greater sum than the amount of the rent-charge payable in respect of the lands occupied by him for the current half-year in which the notice is given. There seems to be no authority for saying that these Chap. III. two conditions apply where the assessment is made on the occupier of the lands. Any land-owner or tithe-owner is empowered by sect. 3 of 2 & 3 Vict. c. 62 to give a notice in writing signed by him to the assessor or collector of any rate or tax in which he may be interested, requiring him to specify within forty days in his assessment made for the purpose of collecting and levying such rate or tax 1. The names of the several occupiers of tithes, lands, Again, by sect. 71 of the principal Act the rentcharge is subject to the same charges or incumbrances as the tithes commuted for it were; and by sect. 4 of 2 & 3 Vict. c. 62, where the whole of the great tithes, or the whole of the small tithes, or the rent-charge for which they have been commuted, are subject to any such charge, incumbrance or liability, power is given to the person entitled to the tithes or rent-charge, with the consent of the commissioners, and of the bishop of the diocese, specially to apportion the charge, incumbrance or liability on any part of the tithes or rentcharge which, in the opinion of the commissioners, is 1 The use of the word "such" in this section is clearly ungrammatical. It cannot refer to the preceding section as that deals with rates and taxes. Probably the draftsman had sect. 71 of the principal Act before him, and the word such refers to that section. |