Finance Act 1949

39 Liability to and date for compulsory redemption

(1) A property chargeable with land tax shall become liable to redemption if on or after the first day of April, nineteen hundred and fifty,—

(a) the property is Crown property but is occupied by some other person; or

(b) the estate owner in respect of the relevant interest—

(i) disposes of that interest; or

(ii) grants out of that interest a lease for a term of twenty-one years or more (not being a lease by way of security only); or

(c) the relevant interest comes to an end ; or

(d) the sole beneficial owner in possession of the relevant interest dies; or

(e) the beneficial owner in possession of the relevant interest is a corporate or unincorporated body of persons or the sole trustee of a trust established for charitable or public purposes only.

(2) The date for compulsory redemption in the case of any property shall be that on which it becomes liable to redemption or, in the case of a property becoming liable before the first day of January, nineteen hundred and fifty-four, by virtue only of paragraph (e) of the foregoing subsection, the said first day of January.

(3) For the purposes of subsection (1) of this section—

(a) the expression " property" includes any part of a property;

(b) the expression " beneficial owner in possession " means the person who by virtue of the relevant interest or any trust thereof is for the time being beneficially entitled (subject or not to any charge, annuity or other incumbrance) to possession of the property or to any income arising therefrom, so, however, that for the purposes of this definition any assignment of a life interest under a settlement or trust shall be disregarded so long as the life interest subsists;

(c) any reference to disposing of the relevant interest includes any disposition of the whole of that interest as for the time being vested in the estate owner, except that a disposition by an estate owner acting in a fiduciary capacity is included only if made on a sale;

and in this subsection the expression " beneficially entitled " includes entitled as trustee of a trust established for charitable or public purposes only or otherwise entitled for the benefit of the public or any section of the public.

(4) Notwithstanding anything in the last foregoing subsection, paragraph (d) of subsection (1) of this section shall not apply where the interest of the deceased was as trustee of a trust established as aforesaid or as holder of any office or recipient of the benefits of a charity or as a corporation sole.