LOCAL GOVERNMENT (COLLECTION OF RATES) ACT, 1924

AN ACT TO AUTHORISE THE ADOPTION OF SPECIAL REMEDIES AND PROCEDURE FOR THE RECOVERY OF ARREARS OF RATES NOW DUE AND TO AUTHORISE THE COLLECTION DURING A LIMITED PERIOD OF RATES THROUGH OR BY MEANS OF THE POST OFFICE AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES CONNECTED WITH THE COLLECTION OF RATES. [12th April, 1924.]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS OF SAORSTAT EIREANN AS FOLLOWS:—

1 Issue to under-sheriff of warrant to levy arrears of rates.

1.—(1) Where any person (in this Act called the ‘defaulter’) has not paid a rate or part of a rate to which this section applies and which is due and payable by him, it shall be the duty of the secretary or clerk of the local authority by which such rate was made, if and when instructed so to do by an inspector of the Minister, to communicate to the Minister in the prescribed form and manner the name, residence, and place of business (if any) of the defaulter, the amount due by him in respect of the rate aforesaid, and the situation and description of the property in respect of which the said rate is payable (in this Act referred to as the rateable property), and thereupon it shall be lawful for the Minister, if and when he shall think proper, to issue to the under-sheriff of the county in which the rateable property is situate or to the under-sheriff of any county in which the defaulter resides or has a place of business, a warrant in the prescribed form certifying the name of the defaulter, the amount due by him as aforesaid, and, as the case may require, the residence or place of business of the defaulter or the situation and description of the rateable property, and authorizing such under-sheriff to levy in accordance with the provisions of this Act the amount aforesaid.

• (2) After a warrant has been issued under this section and until the under-sheriff has made a return to such warrant, the amount thereby certified to be due shall only be payable to and receivable by the under-sheriff to whom the warrant shall have been issued, and shall not be payable to or receivable by a rate collector or any other officer of the local authority.

• (3) This section applies to any poor-rate or other rate made by a local authority to which this section has been applied for the service of the local financial year ended on the 31st day of March, 1924, or any previous local financial year.

• (4) The Minister may by order made at any time within twelve months after the passing of this Act, apply this section to any local authority, and any such order may prescribe such rules as the Minister shall think proper for regulating the respective duties of the secretary or clerk and the rate collectors of the local authority in or about the execution of this section.

• (5) Public notice of the making of an order applying this section to a local authority shall be given in the prescribed manner in the area of jurisdiction of the local authority by the secretary or clerk of the local authority and at the expense of the local authority.

2 Levy by under-sheriff on warrant for arrears of rates.

2.—(1) Immediately upon receipt from the Minister of a warrant under this Act, the under-sheriff shall proceed to levy the sum therein certified to be due by the defaulter by seizing all or any of the goods, animals and other chattels within his bailiwick belonging to the defaulter named in the warrant or to be found on the rateable property mentioned in the warrant, and for such purpose the under-sheriff shall have the like powers of seizing all goods and chattels found on the rateable property as a poor-rate collector has under his warrant, and shall also have all such rights, powers, and duties as are for the time being vested in or imposed on an under-sheriff by law in relation to the execution of a writ of fieri facias.

• (2) All moneys paid to or levied or otherwise received by an under-sheriff on account of the sum mentioned in a warrant issued under this Act shall be paid by him to the treasurer of the local authority named in the warrant as the local authority to whom the said sum is due.

• (3) All fees lawfully earned and expenses lawfully incurred by an under-sheriff in the execution of a warrant under this Act shall, if and so far as they are not otherwise recovered by him, be paid to the under-sheriff by the local authority to whom the sum mentioned in the warrant is due.

3 Powers of rate-collector to continue after payment to local authority.

3.—(1) Where any rate collector has or shall have, before or after the passing of this Act, paid to a local authority pursuant to his bond any sum in respect of a rate collectable but not actually collected by him, such rate collector shall so long as he continues to be a rate collector have and shall be deemed always to have had after such payment the like rights, remedies, and powers for the collection and recovery of the sum so paid by him from the person rated in the rate-book for such rate as he had by law for the collection and recovery thereof from such person before such payment to the local authority.

• (2) The rights, remedies, and powers conferred by this section on a rate collector, save and except the power of distraint, shall continue after he has ceased to be a rate collector to be exercisable by him in respect of a rate collectable, but not actually collected, by him while he was a rate collector.

4 District Justice may amend rate book in certain cases.

4.—(1) Where it shall appear to a District Justice on the application of a local authority on notice to all persons interested that any person entered in a rate-book as the occupier of any tenement and rated as such occupier in respect of a rate made by that local authority was not the occupier of such tenement when the said rate was made, it shall be lawful for the District Justice to amend the said rate-book by striking out the name or description of the person entered therein as occupier of such tenement and inserting in lieu of such name or description the name or description of the person who is proved to the satisfaction of the District Justice to have been in occupation of the said tenement when the said rate was made.

• (2) Whenever a rate-book is amended under this section, the rate in respect of which the amendment is made shall be deemed to have been made against the person whose name or description is inserted in the rate-book by the District Justice as validly and effectually as if such name or description had been duly entered in the rate-book when the rate was made.

• (3) Any person aggrieved by an order made by a District Justice under this section may by notice served within one fortnight after the making of such order appeal from such order to the County Court Judge or Recorder for the County or County Borough in which the tenement to which such order relates is situate.

• (4) This section shall only apply to poor-rate and other rates made by a local authority for the service of the local financial year ending on the 31st day of March, 1924, or any previous local financial year.

5 Service by post of notices relating to rates.

5.—(1) Any notice required by law to be given to the person liable to pay a rate before the institution of summary proceedings for the recovery of such rate may, notwithstanding any enactment now in force prescribing the mode of service of such notice, be served on the person aforesaid by sending the same by post in a pre-paid registered envelope addressed to the defaulter at his address entered in the rate book, and shall be deemed to have been served at the time when the envelope containing the same would have been delivered in the ordinary course of post.

• (2) In proving service of any such notice as aforesaid it shall be sufficient to prove that an envelope containing the notice and addressed as prescribed by this section was duly handed in and registered at a post office.

6 Minister may arrange for collection of rates through Post Office.

6.—(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in any enactment requiring a local authority to collect and levy any rate made by it through duly authorized rate collectors, the Minister may by rules to be made by him after consultation with the Postmaster-General, and with the approval of the Minister for Finance, do all or any of the following things either generally or with respect to any particular local authority or authorities that is to say:—

• (a) provide for the service of demands for the payment of any rate made by a local authority through and by means of the Post Office,

• (b) provide for the payment into and the collection through the Post Office of any rate so demanded, and that the receipt of the appropriate officer of the Post Office for any rate so paid or collected shall be a good discharge to the person paying the same,

• (c) provide for the payment to the Post Office of a commission or poundage on all or any rates collected through the Post Office,

• (d) prescribe the forms to be used in respect of the service of demands for and the payment and collection of rates through the Post Office,

• (e) provide for and prescribe all such matters and things as shall be consequential on or ancillary to all or any of the matters aforesaid.

• (2) Whenever the Minister shall have made rules under this section for the service of demands for, and the payment and collection of, rates made by a local authority, such local authority may appoint such of their officers or other persons as shall be approved by the Minister to perform such of the duties of rate collectors in relation to the recovery of rates as are not carried out by means of the Post Office under the rules aforesaid, and every officer or person so appointed shall have the like powers as a rate collector now has for the recovery of rates, and shall also be entitled to sue in his own name for rates due to such local authority and to give valid receipts therefor and shall be subject to the like control by the Minister as rate collectors are now subject to.

• (3) This section shall only apply to poor-rate and other rates made by a local authority for the service of any of the local financial years ending on the 31st day of March, 1924, the 31st day of March, 1925, or the 31st day of March, 1926, respectively, or for the service of any previous local financial year.

7 Transfer from rate collector of powers and duties unconnected with collection of rates.

7.—(1) The Minister may by order wherever it shall become necessary by reason of any rules made under this Act or otherwise, transfer all or any of the powers and duties of a collector of poor-rate in relation to the valuation of rateable property, the registration of electors, the preparation of jurors lists, or any other matter unconnected with the collection of rates to any person or persons appointed for the purpose by the local authority with the approval of the Minister, or, with the consent of the Minister for Home Affairs, to the Gárda Síochána, and may by such order adapt any enactment, order, or rule relating to any such power or duty so transferred in such manner as shall be necessary to give effect to the order.

• (2) Any such order may be made either generally or with respect to the area of any particular local authority or authorities.

• (3) Every order made by the Minister under this section shall be laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made, and if both of those Houses shall, within twenty-one days on which either House has sat after such order is laid before the Houses, pass resolutions annulling such order, such order shall be annulled but such annulment shall not prejudice or affect the validity of anything previously done under such order.

8 Definitions.

8.—In this Act—

the word “Minister” means the Minister for Local Government,

the expression “local authority” means and includes the council of a county, county borough, borough or urban district and the commissioners of a town,

the word “prescribed” means prescribed by the Minister.

9 Short title.

9.—This Act may be cited as the Local Government (Collection of Rates) Act, 1924.