12Rate to be imposed

12 Rate to be imposed

12 Rate to be imposed

(1) Except as provided in this section, the board shall in each year impose and collect a rate for that year not exceeding the prescribed amount per hectare per annum on all land in the Western Division, except land within an area within the meaning of the Local Government Act 1993 (other than an area that was constituted as a shire immediately before 1 July 1993), a town or a village.

(1A) For the purposes of subsection (1), the prescribed amount is 1 cent or, where a larger amount is prescribed by regulation made under this Act, that larger amount.

(2) The rate imposed in respect of any land shall be payable by the owner or occupier of such land and until payment thereof shall remain a charge upon such land, and shall have priority over all mortgages or other charges thereon other than debts due to the Crown:

Provided that where the board certifies that it is unnecessary to continue to impose a rate, the Governor may by proclamation in the Gazette suspend the imposition and collection of such rate.

(3) The board shall not in any year impose or collect a rate under subsection (1) on any land if the total area of:

(a) that land, and

(b) where the person liable for the rate on that land is also liable for the rates imposed under subsection (1) on any other land—that other land,

is less than the minimum rateable area determined in respect of that year by the board with the approval of the Minister.

(4) Where payment of the rate imposed in respect of any land is overdue and the board is of the opinion that the rate is not substantially more than it would cost the board to recover it, the board may write off that rate and, notwithstanding anything in this Act:

(a) the board shall not at any time thereafter take proceedings for the recovery of that rate, and

(b) that rate shall not thereafter be a charge on the land in respect of which it was imposed.

(5) The provisions of this section have effect despite anything contained in section 42 of the Real Property Act 1900.

s 12: Am 1950 No 35, sec 2 (b) (j); 1957 No 40, sec 3 (i); 1974 No 51, Sch; 1975 No 53, sec 2; 1979 No 143, Sch 1 (1); 1985 No 195, Sch 1 (9); 1995 No 11, Sch 1; 2009 No 17, Sch 3.23.