ScotGov pass corrective Bill on ‘Non-domestic rates on empty properties’
The Scottish Government has passed an emergency Bill to amend existing legislation. The new legislation will correct an error in law for owners of unoccupied properties’ liability to pay non-domestic rates has been published.
The intention of the Bill is to enable the charging of non-domestic rates on the owners of unoccupied non-domestic property, subject to any reliefs that local authorities may choose to put in place, with retrospective effect, from 1 April 2023. It corrects a recently identified error in amendments made by the Non-Domestic Rates (Scotland) Act 2020 to devolve empty property relief and which mean there has been no valid legal basis to levy non-domestic rates on the owners of empty properties since 1 April 2023.
The Bill will enable the non-domestic rates system to continue to operate in the way it has been universally understood and operating in practice since 1 April 2023.
Links to the Bill and the accompanying Documents can be found here: