Land Compensation (Scotland) Act 1963

5 Expenses

(1) Where either—

(a) the acquiring authority have made an unconditional offer in writing of any sum as compensation to any claimant and the sum awarded by the official arbiter to that claimant does not exceed the sum offered; or

(b) the official arbiter is satisfied that a claimant has failed to deliver to the acquiring authority, in time to enable them to make a proper offer, a notice in writing of the amount claimed by him, containing the particulars mentioned in subsection (2) of this section;

the official arbiter shall, unless for special reasons he thinks proper not to do so, order the claimant to bear his own expenses and to pay the expenses of the acquiring authority so far as they were incurred after the offer was made or, as the case may be, after the time when in the opinion of the. official arbiter the notice should have been delivered.

(2) The notice mentioned in subsection (1)(b) of this section must state the exact nature of the interest in respect of which compensation is claimed and give details of the compensation claimed, distinguishing the amounts under separate heads and showing how the amount claimed under each head is calculated.

(3) Where a claimant has delivered such a notice as is mentioned in subsection (1)(b) of this section and has made an unconditional offer in writing to accept any sum as compensation, then, if the sum awarded to him by the official arbiter is equal to or exceeds that sum, the official arbiter shall, unless for special reasons he thinks proper not to do so, order the acquiring authority to bear their own expenses and pay the expenses of the claimant so far as they were incurred after his offer was made.

(4) Subject as aforesaid, the expenses of an arbitration under this Part of this Act shall be in the discretion of the official arbiter who may direct to and by whom, and in what manner, those expenses or any part thereof shall be paid, and the official arbiter may, in any case, disallow the cost of counsel.

(5) An official arbiter may himself tax the amount of expenses ordered to be paid or may direct in what manner they are to be taxed.

(6) Where the official arbiter orders the claimant to pay the expenses, or any part of the expenses, of the acquiring authority, the acquiring authority may deduct the amount so payable by the claimant from the amount of the compensation, if any, payable to him.

(7) For the purposes of this section, expenses include any fees, charges and expenses of the arbitration or award.