Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Abolition of Domestic Rates (Domestic and Part Residential Subjects) (Scotland) Regulations 1987 and shall come into force on 8th January 1988.

Interpretation

2.  In these Regulations-

"the Act" means the Abolition of Domestic Rates Etc. (Scotland) Act 1987;

"the 1968 Act" means the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968(2);

"caravan" has the same meaning as it has for the purposes of Part 1 of the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960(3);

"hostel" means an establishment in which residential accommodation is provided and which is-

and where the sole or main function of the establishment is to provide personal care or support, combined with board, to persons who are solely or mainly resident in the establishment;

"nursing home" means-

"personal care" includes the provision of appropriate help with physical and social needs;

"private hospital" means a private hospital within the meaning of section 12 of the Mental Health (Scotland) Act 1984(6) which is registered under that Act;

"private motor vehicle" means a mechanically propelled vehicle not falling within Schedules 2, 3 and 4 to the Vehicles (Excise) Act 1971(7);

"residential care home" means-

and where the sole or main function of the establishment or accommodation is to provide personal care or support, combined with board, to persons who are solely or mainly resident in the establishment or accommodation;

"support" means counselling or other help provided as part of a planned programme of care;

"voluntary organisation" has the same meaning as in section 94(1) of the 1968 Act.

DOMESTIC SUBJECTS

Meaning of domestic subjects

3.-(1) The following classes and parts of classes of lands and heritages are prescribed for the purposes of section 2(3)(b) of the Act (meaning of domestic subjects), namely-

(a)private car parking premises, being lands and heritages which are a garage, a carport or, as the case may be, a car parking stance-

(i)whose use is ancillary to, and which is used wholly in connection with, other domestic subjects or the residential use made of part residential subjects, and

(ii)which is used wholly or mainly for the accommodation of one or more private motor vehicles;

(b)private storage premises, being lands and heritages-

(i)whose use is ancillary to, and which are used wholly in connection with, other domestic subjects or the residential use made of part residential subjects, and

(ii)which are used wholly or mainly for the storage of articles of domestic use (including cycles and other similar vehicles);

(c)communal sheltered housing premises, being lands and heritages-

(i)whose use is ancillary to, and which are used wholly in connection with, a group of dwellinghouses which have been provided with facilities which are substantially different from those of an ordinary dwellinghouse and which have been designed or adapted for occupation by elderly persons whose special needs require accommodation of the kind provided by the dwellinghouses, and

(ii)in which there are facilities which are available for use by all the persons residing in the dwellinghouses or their guests;

(d)communal residential establishments, being lands and heritages (other than any part of the lands and heritages specified in paragraph (2) below)-

(i)which are used wholly as the sole or main residence of persons who reside there, or

(ii)which are used wholly as residential accommodation by persons who, by virtue of section 8(4) of the Act, are to be regarded as being solely or mainly resident in the area of the local authority in which those lands and heritages are situated, and in which, in either case, there are facilities which are available for sharing by some or all of those persons.

(2) The parts of the lands and heritages specified in this paragraph are any part of-

(a)a hostel;

(b)a nursing home;

(c)a private hospital; and

(d)a residential care home, which is not used wholly or mainly as the sole or main residence of persons employed there.

(3) For the purposes of paragraph (1) above, lands and heritages, or parts of lands and heritages, which are not in use shall nevertheless be treated as private car parking premises, private storage premises, communal shel tered housing premises or, as the case may be, communal residential establishments, if that was the use last made of them.

Meaning of domestic subjects-exceptions

4.  The classes of lands and heritages prescribed for the purposes of section 2(4) of the Act (exceptions from the meaning of domestic subjects), are caravans, huts, sheds, bothies or other similar structures or buildings-

(a)which are intended to be used wholly or mainly for residential purposes, and

(b)which are not the sole or main residence of any person, and

(c)which either-

(i)in accordance with any licence or planning permission regulating the use of their pitches or sites, or for any other reason, are not allowed to be used for human habitation throughout the whole year, or

(ii)by reason of their construction or the facilities which they do, or do not, provide are unfit so to be used.

PART RESIDENTIAL SUBJECTS

Meaning of part residential subjects-exceptions

5.  The classes of lands and heritages which are prescribed for the purposes of paragraph (b) of the definition of "part residential subjects" in section 26(1) of the Act (lands and heritages excluded from that definition) are any part of the lands and heritages specified in regulation 3(2) above.

Dates relating to apportionment of values of part residential subjects

6.  The date prescribed for the purposes of-

(a)paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 to the Act (date before 1st April 1989 by which apportionments of net annual and rateable values of part residential subjects are to be made); and

(b)paragraph 2 of that Schedule (date before 1st April 1989 by which valuation roll is to be altered by the addition of apportionment notes to entries relating to part residential subjects), is 1st October 1988.

MISCELLANEOUS

Fee for assessor's certificate of value

7.  The fee prescribed for the purposes of section 5(6) of the Act (fee for asssessor's certificate of value of property constituting domestic subjects) is £100.

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations prescribe certain matters which fall to be prescribed in relation to Part I of the Abolition of Domestic Rates Etc. (Scotland) Act 1987 ("the Act").

Regulations 3 and 4 make provision with regard to the meaning of domestic subjects in respect of which, in terms of Part I of the Act, rates cease to be leviable with effect from 1st April 1989. Domestic subjects are defined in section 2(3) of the Act to mean, in broad terms, dwellinghouses and such classes or parts of classes of other lands and heritages as may be prescribed.

Regulation 3 prescribes for this purpose the following classes or parts of classes of lands and heritages, namely

(a)private car parking premises, which are a garage, car port or car parking stance ancillary to, and used wholly in connection with, other domestic subjects or the residential use of part residential subjects and wholly or mainly for the accommodation of one or more private motor vehicles;

(b)private storage premises, which are premises ancillary to, and used wholly in connection with, other domestic subjects or the residential use of part residential subjects and wholly or mainly for the storage of articles of domestic use;

(c)communal sheltered housing premises, which are premises ancillary to, and used wholly in connection with, sheltered housing for elderly persons and which have facilities available for those persons and their guests to use;

(d)communal residential establishments, which are premises providing residential accommodation, with shared facilities, for persons who are solely or mainly resident there. This is defined as excluding any part of certain hostels, nursing homes, private hospitals and residential care homes which is not used as accommodation by staff who are solely or mainly resident there.

Regulation 4 prescribes what classes of land and heritages are to be excepted from the dwellinghouse part of the definition of domestic subjects, namely caravans, huts, sheds, bothies or other similar structures or buildings which are intended to be used wholly or mainly for residential purposes, and are not the sole or main residence of any person but may not be used for human habitation throughout the whole year either because of planning or other restrictions or because they are not fit for such use.

Regulation 5 makes provision with regard to the meaning of part residential subjects which are defined in section 26(1) of the Act. Part residential subjects are subjects which are partly used as the sole or main residence of any person and partly for other purposes. They do not include domestic subjects or such other classes of lands and heritages as may be prescribed. Regulation 5 prescribes, for this purpose, those parts of the hostels, nursing homes, private hospitals and residential care homes which are excepted from the definition of communal residential establishments and are therefore not domestic subjects.

Regulation 6 prescribes 1st October 1988 as the date by which-

(a)the net annual and rateable values of part residential subjects are to be apportioned as between the residential and non-residential uses of those subjects; and

(b)entries in the valuation roll for part residential subjects are to be altered by the addition of a note showing the apportionment of those values.

Regulation 7 prescribes £100 as the fee payable for a certificate issued by the assessor under section 5(6) of the Act as to what would have been the gross annual value, net annual value or rateable value of certain domestic subjects immediately before 1st April 1989. Such a certificate may be required for certain statutory purposes where, for example, the domestic subjects only come into existence on or after that date.