Valuations Appeal Board

(1) There shall be established in respect of each town, for the purpose of hearing appeals against valuations made in pursuance of this Act, a Valuations Appeal Board consisting of, in the case of Belize City, a magistrate and two other persons appointed by the Minister, and in the case of any other town, the magistrate of the Judicial District wherein the town is situated, and two other persons appointed by the Minister. 15 (2) Every member of a Valuations Appeal Board, not being an officer of the public service of Belize, shall receive such remuneration as the Minister may determine and such remuneration shall be a charge upon the funds of the local (3) All persons appointed by the Minister to a Valuations Appeal Board shall be appointed before 1st April in each year, and shall hold office for one year from the said 1st April, Provided that any Valuations Appeal Board appointed to hold office for one year from the first day of January, 1980 shall continue to hold office until the last day of March 1981. (4) In the event of an appointed member of a Valuations Appeal Board retiring from office, or being absent from Belize or otherwise becoming incapable of performing the duties of his office during the period of his office, the Minister shall appoint another person in his place for the remainder of the term of office of such member or for the period of incapacity of such member, as the case may be. (5) Where a notice of appeal to a Valuations Appeal Board is served on a valuation officer, the valuation officer shall forthwith notify a Belize City magistrate in the case of an appeal relating to property situated in Belize City or, in the case of property situated in any other town, the magistrate of the Judicial District wherein that town is situated. (6) Fourteen days’ notice of the time and place of the hearing of an appeal shall be given by or on behalf of the magistrate to each of the parties entitled to be heard on the (7) On the hearing of an appeal by a Valuations Appeal (a) the appellant; 16 (b) the valuation officer; (c) the local authority for the town in which the property in question is situated when that authority is not the appellant; and (d) the party assessed in respect of the property to which the appeal relates, when that party is not the appellant, shall be entitled to call witnesses and to examine any witnesses called before the Board. (8) After hearing the persons referred to in subsection (7) of this section or such of them as desire to be heard, the Valuations Appeal Board shall give such directions with respect to the manner in which the property in question is to be treated in the valuation roll as the justice of the case may require, and the valuation officer shall cause to be made in the roll such alterations as are necessary to give effect to those directions. (9) The receipt of a notice of appeal shall not prevent a local authority from recovering any rate. (10) The payment of costs on appeal shall be in the discretion of the Valuations Appeal Board, which shall order by and to whom they shall be paid. (11) The amount of such costs shall be an amount as the Chief Justice may by rules prescribe, and payment thereof may be enforced as a civil debt. (12) In proceedings before a Valuations Appeal Board, evidence may be taken on oath, which oath the magistrate on the Board is empowered to administer, and any person giving false evidence in any proceedings before a Valuations Appeal Board is liable to be indicted and punished for perjury. 17