Rating Manual section 5: valuation practice Part 2: Forms of Return and Rent and Lease Details (RALD)

How to use the service

It is not anticipated that VOs serve a penalty notice in every instance a FOR is not returned after the 56-day period allowed by statute. The VO has discretion whether or not to do so and it is therefore important that VOs consider all the available facts and issues prior to serving any penalty notice to ensure that the subsequent efforts are likely to succeed in both collection of the information requested and penalty accrued. It is important to remember that information return is the primary concern of valuation officers; not only the information in any individual instance, but also the overall speed, quality and instances of information return in respect of all FORs served by any particular VO. This means that the VO will decide when and when not to serve a penalty notice by weighing up the anticipated assistance likely to be provided by the information in any particular instance; he or she must also have an eye on the overall speed, quality and amount of information returned in respect of all FORs served in their billing authority areas. It is not appropriate for a VO to serve so many penalty notices that the efforts made to serve them and deal with subsequent collection of penalty monies distracts the VO from the primary objective of gathering information. Similarly, if disproportionately low numbers of penalty notices are served, ratepayers could readily conclude that lack of effective pursuit means that information return is not so important to a VO; such an outcome would detrimentally affect the speed, quality and incidence of returning forms. It is therefore anticipated that VOs monitor their information return rates and consider them in the light of their own needs and Although it is acknowledged that VOs will not serve a penalty notice every time information requested is not returned within 56 days, it should be remembered that liability to £100 penalty automatically arises once the 56 day period has passed. This means valuation officers’ are entitled to