Valuation (Amendment) Act 2015

Amendment of section 19 of Principal Act

7. Section 19 of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) by substituting for subsections (1) and (2) the following:

“(1) The Commissioner, after consultation with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and the rating authority concerned, may make an order (in this Act referred to as a ‘valuation order’) specifying a rating authority area as being an area in relation to which the Commissioner proposes to appoint a person under subsection (2) to organise and secure the carrying out of a valuation of relevant property situate in that area (other than any property specified in paragraph (a) or (b) of that subsection).

(1A) A valuation order may specify that the valuation of a rating authority area, or a portion thereof, shall be carried out in accordance with regulations made under section 26B.

(2) As soon as may be after the making of a valuation order, the Commissioner shall appoint a person to organise and secure the carrying out of a valuation of every relevant property on the valuation list or existing valuation list situate in the rating authority area specified in the order and any relevant property entered on that list between the making of the valuation order and the publication of the list, other than—

(a) any relevant property the subject of an order under section 53, or

(b) any relevant property specified in Schedule 4.”,

and

(b) by substituting for subsections (3) and (4) the following:

“(3) The person so appointed is referred to in this Act as a ‘valuation manager’.

(4) For the purposes of subsection (2) a valuation manager shall, in accordance with subsection (5), arrange for—

(a) the carrying out of a valuation of each property concerned by one or more officers of the Commissioner (who may include that valuation manager), and

(b) the drawing up and compilation of a valuation list for the rating authority area concerned.

(5) The valuation list as referred to in this section shall be drawn up and compiled by reference to relevant market data and other relevant data available on or before the date of issue of the valuation certificates concerned, and shall achieve both (insofar as is reasonably practicable)—

(a) correctness of value, and

(b) equity and uniformity of value between properties on that valuation list,

and so that (as regards the matters referred to in paragraph (b)) the value of each property on that valuation list is relative to the value of other properties comparable to that property on that valuation list in the rating authority area concerned or, if no such comparable properties exist, is relative to the value of other properties on that valuation list in that rating authority area.

(6) Where the person proposed under subsection (1) is not an officer of the Commissioner, the Commissioner may, with the consent of the Minister, enter into an arrangement (with such conditions as may be agreed between the parties) with that person (who may be assisted by other persons) to perform that function.

(7) Where subsection (5) applies and the Commissioner considers it appropriate, an officer of the Commissioner may assist the valuation manager.”.