UK Offence Report

Rental auction, second week: obligations on the local authority and landlord

regulation 7(7) of The Local Authorities (Rental Auctions) (England) and Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Amendment) Regulations 2024

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

7 A notice served by the local authority under section 210(2) in accordance with this regulation or otherwise in connection with the exercise of the local authority’s functions under Part 10 of the Act in respect of the premises must contain a statement that if the person on whom the notice is served— a fails without reasonable excuse to comply with a requirement in the notice, or b provides false information which that person knows or should reasonably know to be false, that person commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine.

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
an local authority
Conduct
making a false or misleading statement
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that an local authority meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

nt that if the person on whom the notice is served— a fails without reasonable excuse to comply with a requirement in the notice, or b provides false information which that person knows or should reasonably know to be false, that person commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine.

What would breach regulation 7(7)?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. Entering a figure on a form or return that is known to be wrong under the Local Authorities (Rental Auctions) (England) and Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Amendment) Regulations 2024.
  2. Leaving out something the form asks for, where the omission is what makes the answer misleading.
  3. Producing a document to an official that has been altered since it was issued.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

'to a fine' with no stated maximum.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
7 November 2024
In force from
2 December 2024
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations are made under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (c. 8) and the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 (c. 55) (“the 2023 Act”). They set out the process to be followed when a local authority exercises the powers given to it in Part 10 of the 2023 Act to arrange for a rental auction to be carried out in respect of qualifying high-street premises. They also amend the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 (S.I. 2015/596) (“the General Permitted Development Order”) to provide for temporary planning permission for a change of use of such premises to a suitable high-street use for the duration of a tenancy granted following a rental auction held under Part 10 of the 2023 Act. Part 2 of the Regulations make provision for rental auctions. Regulation 3 requires local authorities to consult on any proposal to designate a high street or a town centre for the purposes of section 191 of the 2023 Act, or to vary or withdraw an existing designation. Regulation 4 of, and Schedule 1 to, the Regulations set out the forms to be used for initial letting notices, final letting notices and counter-notices served under sections 195, 198 and 201 respectively of the 2023 Act. Regulation 5 requires the local authority to carry out a survey of premises before arranging a rental auction in relation to those premises. Regulations 6 to 10 and Schedules 2 and 3 to the Regulations set out the steps which must be taken by the local authority and by the landlord of the premises concerned in weeks one to ten of the auction period, and provide for the terms of the tenancy contract (Schedule 2) and the tenancy (Schedule 3). Regulation 11 provides for who the local authority may accept as the successful bidder, but also gives the local authority power to decide not to accept any bid. Regulation 12 determines when the rental auction is concluded, and regulation 13 makes provision for payment of the costs of the auction process. Regulation 14 provides for the service of any documents required as part of the auction process. Part 3 of the Regulations amends Part 4 of Schedule 2 to the General Permitted Development Order to provide for planning permission for a temporary change of use in consequence of the grant of a tenancy following a rental auction held under Part 10 of the 2023 Act. A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument, as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

How this became law

This instrument became law without a debate or a vote. Under the negative procedure it took effect unless a motion to stop it succeeded, and none was tabled.

Neither House could have amended it. A statutory instrument is put to each House as a whole thing, to be approved or not; the Houses can reject an instrument or record their regret, but they cannot change a word of it. That is the constitutional position for every offence on this site.

The full procedural history →

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person “commits an offence”; the provision states liability on summary conviction
Confidence
0.92 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source