Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (War Restrictions) Act 1915
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1915 c. 97 |
| Year | 1915 |
Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (War Restrictions) Act, 1915.
(5 & 6 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 97.
An Act to restrict, in connection with the present War, the Increase of the Rent of Small Dwelling-houses and the Increase of the Rate of Interest on, and the Calling in of, Securities on such Dwelling-houses.
[23rd December 1915]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
1 Restriction on raising rent or rate of mortgage interest.
(1) Where the rent of a dwelling-house to which this Act applies, or the rate of interest on a mortgage to which this Act applies, has been, since the commencement of the present war, or is hereafter during the continuance of this Act, increased above the standard rent or the standard rate of interest as herein-after defined, the amount by which the rent or interest payable exceeds the amount which would have been payable had the increase not been made shall, notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary, be irrecoverable:
Provided that—
(i) This subsection shall not apply to any rent or mortgage interest which accrued due before the twenty-fifth day of November nineteen hundred and fifteen; and
(ii) Where the landlord has since the commencement of the present war incurred, or during the continuance of this Act incurs, expenditure on the improvement or structural alteration of a dwelling-house (not including expenditure on decoration or repairs), an increase of rent at a rate not exceeding six per cent. per annum on the amount so expended shall not be deemed to be an increase for the purposes of this Act; and
(iii) Any transfer to a tenant of any burden or liability previously borne by the landlord shall for the purposes of this Act be treated as an alteration of rent, and where, as the result of such a transfer, the terms on which a dwelling-house is held are on the whole less favourable to the tenant than the previous terms the rent shall be deemed to be increased, whether or not the sum periodically payable by way of rent is increased, and any increase of rent in respect of any transfer to a landlord of any burden or liability previously borne by the tenant where, as the result of such transfer, the terms on which a dwelling-house is held are on the whole more favourable to the tenant than the previous terms shall be deemed not to be an increase of rent for the purposes of this Act, and if any question arises under this proviso the question shall be determined by the county court, whose decision shall be final and conclusive; and
(iv) Where the landlord pays the rates chargeable on, or which but for the enactments relating to compounding would be chargeable on, the occupier of any dwelling-house, an increase of the rent of the dwelling-house shall not be deemed to be an increase for the purposes of this Act if the amount of the increase does not exceed any increase in the amount for the time being payable by the landlord in respect of such rates over the corresponding amount paid in respect of the yearly, half yearly or other period which included the third day of August nineteen hundred and fourteen, and for the purposes of this proviso the expression ‘rates’ includes water rents and charges; and
(v) Where the rate of mortgage interest has been increased in compliance with, or in consequence of, a notice in writing demanding either repayment of the mortgage or an increased rate of interest given prior to the fourth day of August nineteen hundred and fourteen, such increase shall not be deemed to be an increase for the purposes of this Act; and
(vi) Wherever an increase of rent is by this Act permitted, no such increase shall be due or recoverable until the expiry of four clear weeks after the landlord has served upon the tenant a notice in writing of his intention to increase the rent, accompanied—
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