Annual fees and the Police Reform & Social Responsibility Act

While the other changes will bite only where an application is actually submitted, or a temporary event notice (TEN) issued, all holders of premises licences and club premises certificates have to pay an annual fee.

The changes cannot be ignored. We have attended conferences and indeed spoken to licensing authorities that are under the mistaken belief that the changes will apply to annual fees which are outstanding as at the 25 April 2012 — in other words, the changes are retrospective and would provide licensing authorities with the ability to collect annual fees that are long overdue from previous years.

The PRSRA is quite specific in that the changes take effect only in relation to “annual fees that become due on or after the commencement of...” the relevant section (section 120 (6)). However, if any annual fees due on 25 April 2012 are not paid on that day, a licensing authority can immediately take steps to suspend the premises licence.

There is a period of grace of 21 days if either the holder of the licence or certificate has failed to pay the fee because of an “administrative error”.  That error can be on the part of the holder of the premises licence, the licensing authority or indeed “anyone else”. Presumably this can cover failure by agents or solicitors to pay the annual fee on behalf of clients, where non-payment is as a result of an administrative error.

Hopefully licensing authorities will contact holders of licences or certificates or their agents and chase payment, and if non payment has occurred as a result of an “administrative error” the grace period of 21 days will kick in.

There is also a grace period where “before or at the time the fee became due” the holder of the licence or certificate has notified the licensing authority in writing that the holder disputes the liability for the fee, or the amount of the fee.

The Act is quite clear in that the holder of the licence or certificate at the time the fee becomes due is liable to pay it, whether or not they are still operating the business. So, failure to transfer the premises licence by a purchaser of the property can leave a vendor liable to pay the annual fee and recover it from the purchaser.

Where problems are going to occur is where the licensing authority demands payment of the multiplier for a premises licence where the premises’ rateable value means they fall in Bands D or E and the authority requests twice the fee (Band D) or three times the fee (Band E). There is no obligation on the authority to send an invoice for the annual fee and it may not demand payment of the multiplier for the annual fee until after the date the annual fee becomes payable has passed.

If the holder of the licence has not disputed the payment on or before the annual fee falling due, the fee is payable and non-payment can lead to suspension of the premises licence. Should the holder of the premises licence decide to simply pay the fee without the multiplier then, because the whole fee has not been paid the licensing authority can simply suspend the premises licence.

Therefore, if holders of premises licences suspect the authority may be seeking to claim the multiplier from them, they should check prior to the fee falling due how much the authority is expecting, in order to dispute the amount in writing prior to the fee falling due. Forewarned is forearmed!