Tithe Act 1936

15 Procedure for redemption of annuities.

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, the amount of the consideration money to be paid for the redemption of an annuity, and the procedure for the redemption of an annuity, and for the reduction under this section of the amount of an annuity, shall be such as may be prescribed by rules made by the Treasury (in this section referred to as " the rules ").

(2) The rules shall provide for the determination of the amount of the consideration money to be paid for the redemption of an annuity on the basis of the discounting of all sums which, if the annuity were not redeemed, would be payable in respect of instalments of the annuity on or after the redemption date, reduced by such sum, if any, as the Treasury may think fit in respect of cost of collection, at a rate of interest fixed by reference to the yield of such Government security or securities as the Treasury consider appropriate.

(3) Where an annuity is redeemable compulsorily, the appropriate authority may serve upon the owner of any land in respect of which the annuity is charged a notice in writing (in this Act referred to as a " redemption notice "):

Provided that the appropriate authority may postpone service of a redemption notice during such period as they may think fit, and may revoke or amend such a notice, and generally may make such provision in respect of the compulsory redemption of annuities as will avoid any undue hardship on any owner of land in respect of which an annuity redeemable compulsorily is charged.

(4) A redemption notice shall specify the amount of the consideration money to be paid for the redemption, shall require the owner to pay that amount on a date to be specified therein, and shall be served on the owner not less than one month before the redemption date :

Provided that the appropriate authority may provide for payments by instalments on dates to be specified in the notice.

(5) An annuity in respect of which a redemption notice is served shall be extinguished as from the day following the payment date next before the redemption date.

(6) An owner of land in respect of which an annuity is charged shall be entitled, on making application in that behalf to the appropriate authority, to have notified to him the amount of the consideration money required for the redemption of the annuity in accordance with the rules, and, on payment by an owner in accordance with the rules of an amount notified to him under this subsection, the annuity shall be extinguished as from the day following the payment date next before the redemption date.

(7) Where on an apportionment of an annuity under this Act a substituted annuity would, if charged, be redeemable compulsorily, the appropriate authority may include in the order for apportionment a direction that the annuity shall not be charged and serve upon the owner of the land in respect of which it would have been charged the like notice as if it had been charged and the notice were a redemption notice served in respect thereof.

(8) Where the appropriate authority are satisfied that the owner of the land in respect of which a substituted annuity would be charged on an apportionment of an annuity under this Act is willing to pay to them, within such period as they may determine, the amount of the consideration money which would be payable for the redemption of the substituted annuity, they may include in the order for apportionment directions for securing that if that amount is paid to them within that period the substituted annuity shall not be charged.

(9) An owner of land in respect of which an annuity is charged may at any time pay to the appropriate authority, with a view to the reduction of the amount of the annuity, a capital sum not being less than twenty-five pounds, and, where such a payment is made, the amount of the annuity shall be reduced by such an amount, and as from such date, as may be determined by the appropriate authority in accordance with the rules, and the annuity as so reduced shall continue to be charged in respect of the whole of the land in respect of which it was theretofore charged.

(10) The appropriate authority may, on the application of the person by whom any sum is paid in respect of the redemption of an annuity, grant to him a certificate charging any land in respect of which the annuity was charged or any estate or interest therein with that sum or any part thereof, together with interest at such rate as the authority may determine, and a person to whom such a certificate is granted shall be entitled to a charge in accordance with the terms thereof having such priority in relation to other charges on the property charged as may be specified in the certificate.

(11) Rules made under this section shall be laid before each House of Parliament as soon as may be after they are made, and if either House, within the next subsequent twenty-eight days on which that House has sat after any such rules are laid before it, resolves that the rules shall be annulled, they shall thenceforth be void, but without prejudice to anything previously done thereunder or to the making of any new rules.

(12) In this section the expression " redemption date " means, in a case in which a redemption notice or a notice under subsection (7) of this section is served, the date or the first date, as the case may be, on which a payment is thereby required, and means, in a case in which a payment is made under subsection (6) of this section, the date on which that payment is made.