[2007] EWHC 400 (Ch), 2 March 2007. Exeter City Council (E) applied for a declaration that rates for retail premises occupied by a respondent company (T), while in administration, were payable as expenses of the administration process. After the initial administration period expired, new administrators (B) were appointed. B?s administration expired six months later and T was compulsorily wound-up by petition of a creditor. E argued that the rates were an expense of the administration and took priority over payments to the administrators under the Insolvency Rules 1986, the relevant section being modelled on the Insolvency Act 1986 Sch.B1. The special advocate argued that the rescue culture of administrations was different to liquidations, and these considerations were detailed in consultation papers issued prior to the new administration regime. "Held": The question of whether rates and other necessary payments during administration was payable as an expense was not for the courts to make. By using the language of the Insolvency Act 1986 Sch.B1 within the Insolvency Rules 1986 that policy had been made clear. Non-domestic rates should rank as expenses in an administration. Although not raised here, it was found that unoccupied property rates would be subject to this ruling.