Highways Act 1980

305 Recovery of expenses by councils and highway authorities. E+W

(1) Where a council or a highway authority have incurred expenses for the repayment of which the owner of the premises in respect of which the expenses were incurred is liable—

(a) under any of the provisions of this Act to which this section applies, or

(b) by agreement with the council or highway authority,

those expenses, together with interest at such reasonable rate as the council may determine from the date of service of a demand for the expenses, may be recovered by the council or the highway authority from the owner for the time being of the premises; and as from the date of the completion of the works the expenses and interest accrued due thereon are, until recovered, a charge on the premises and on all estates and interests therein.

(2) A council or highway authority may by order declare any expenses and interest recoverable by them under this section to be payable by annual instalments within a period not exceeding 30 years, together with interest on them at such reasonable rate as the authority may determine; and any such instalment and interest, or any part thereof, may be recovered from the owner or occupier for the time being of the premises in respect of which the expenses were incurred.

(3) A person aggrieved by an order of a council or highway authority under subsection (2) above, or by the refusal of a council or highway authority to make such an order, may, except in a case where an appeal lies to the Minister under section 233 above, appeal to a magistrates’ court.

(4) Schedule 13 to this Act applies in relation to any sum paid by an occupier of premises under the foregoing provisions of this section.

(5) Any sum which a council or highway authority are entitled to recover under this section or any other provision of this Act, and with respect to the mode of recovery of which provision is not made by any other section of this Act, may be recovered either summarily as a civil debt or in any court of competent jurisdiction.

(6) Any charge acquired by the Minister by virtue of subsection (1) above is (without prejudice to the operation of section 1 of the M1 Local Land Charges Act 1975 as regards any charge acquired by a council by virtue of that subsection) a local land charge.

(7) This section applies to the following provisions of this Act, namely, sections 152, 153, 165, 167, 177, 180, 184 and 230, except 230(7).

Marginal Citations

M1 1975 c. 76.