Under Article 25A of the Rates (Northern Ireland) Order 1977, as amended, rates are payable on unoccupied properties that fall within a class prescribed by regulations. These Regulations prescribe a class consisting of all non-domestic buildings or parts of buildings except those which comply with any of the conditions set out in regulation 3(2). Unoccupied property rate is payable at half the normal level.

The classes of property excluded from the rate by virtue of regulation 3(2) include property unoccupied for not more than three months, industrial property, property with a rateable value of less than £2,000 and properties in respect of which any of the conditions specified in that paragraph apply.

The impact on business of the introduction of unoccupied property rate is detailed in the Regulatory Impact Assessment included in the Policy Paper ‘The Rating of Vacant Property and the Removal of Industrial Derating’ that issued in April 2003. Copies of that Assessment may be obtained, free of charge, from Rating Policy Division, Room D12, Department of Finance and Personnel, Rathgael House, Balloo Road, Bangor, BT19 7NA.