Landlord and Tenant (Rent Control) Act 1949
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1949 c. 40 |
Landlord and Tenant (Rent Control) Act, 1949
(12, 13 & 14 Geo. 6) CHAPTER 40
An Act to provide in certain cases for the determination by a Tribunal of standard rents for the purposes of the Rent and Mortgage Interest Restrictions Acts, 1920 to 1939; further to restrict the requiring of premiums in connection with tenancies to which those Acts apply; to make further provision for the purposes of those Acts where the tenant shares part of his accommodation with his landlord or other persons or sublets part of his dwelling-house furnished; to amend the Rent of Furnished Houses Control (Scotland) Act, 1943, and the Furnished Houses (Rent Control) Act, 1946, as respects security of tenure and the requiring of premiums and as respects the districts for which Tribunals are constituted; to make certain minor amendments of the said Acts in so far as they apply to Scotland; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[2nd June 1949]
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 Variation of standard rents fixed by reference to new lettings.
(1) Where apart from this section the standard rent of a dwelling-house would be—
(a ) the rent at which it was let on a letting beginning after the first day of September, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, or
(b ) an amount ascertainable by apportionment of the rent at which a property of which it formed part was let on such a letting as aforesaid (whether such an apportionment has been made or not),
then, subject to the provisions of this section, the landlord or the tenant may make application to the Tribunal to determine what rent is reasonable for that dwelling-house, and on any such application the Tribunal shall determine that rent and shall notify the parties of their determination:
Provided that an application shall not be made in respect of a dwelling-house if a previous application in respect thereof has been made under this subsection.
(2) Subject to the provisions of the next following subsection, if the rent so determined by the Tribunal as aforesaid is less than what would be the standard rent apart from this section, it shall, as from the date of the determination thereof, be the standard rent of the dwelling-house.
(3) If on the hearing of the application it appears to the Tribunal that the limit imposed by the principal Acts on the rent recoverable in respect of the dwelling-house exceeds what would be the standard rent apart from this section, the Tribunal shall determine the amount of the excess; and if the rent determined in accordance with subsection (1) of this section, reduced by the amount of the excess, is less than what would be the standard rent apart from this section, the rent so determined and reduced shall as from the date of the Tribunal's determination be the standard rent of the dwelling-house.
(4) Subject to the provisions of this section, the rent which is reasonable for a dwelling-house shall, for the purposes of this section, be the rent which is in all the circumstances reasonable on a letting of that dwelling-house on the terms and conditions, other than terms and conditions fixing the amount of rent, on which the dwelling-house is let at the time of the application.
(5) In determining under this section what rent is reasonable for a dwelling-house, no regard shall be had to the fact that any premium has been paid in respect of the grant, continuance or renewal of a tenancy; but the provisions of Part I of the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect in relation to such premiums paid before the commencement of this Act.
(6) In determining under this section what rent is reasonable for a dwelling-house forming part of another dwelling-house to which the principal Acts apply, regard shall not be had to the rent of the said other dwelling-house or any part thereof if no determination in respect of the dwelling-house or part has been made under this section.
(7) No application shall be made under this section in respect of any house—
(a ) while it is under the management of a housing association within the meaning of the Housing Act, 1936 (including a development corporation established under the New Towns Act, 1946), or
(b ) while any limitation of the rent is in force, being a limitation imposed by or under any enactment not contained in the principal Acts or this Act.
(8) In relation to a dwelling-house or property let at a progressive rent, subsection (1) of this section shall have effect with the substitution, for references to the rent at which the dwelling-house or property was let, of references to the maximum rent under the letting.
2 Prohibition of premiums on grant or assignment of tenancy.
(1) A person shall not, as a condition of the grant, renewal or continuance of a tenancy to which this section applies, require the payment of any premium in addition to the rent.
(2) Subject to the provisions of Part II of the First Schedule to this Act, a person shall not, as a condition of the assignment of a tenancy to which this section applies, require the payment of any premium.
(3) This section applies to any tenancy of a dwelling-house, being a tenancy to which the principal Acts apply, such that when the dwelling-house is let under the tenancy it is a dwelling-house to which the principal Acts apply.
(4) Notwithstanding anything in subsection (2) of this section, an assignor may, if apart from this section he would be entitled so to do, require the payment by the assignee—
(a ) of so much of any outgoings discharged by the assignor as is referable to any period after the assignment takes effect;
(b ) of a sum not exceeding the amount of any expenditure reasonably incurred by the assignor in carrying out any structural alteration of the dwelling-house or in providing or improving fixtures therein, being fixtures which as against the landlord he is not entitled to remove;
(c ) where the assignor became a tenant of the dwelling-house by virtue of an assignment of the tenancy thereof, of a sum not exceeding any reasonable amount paid by him to his assignor in respect of expenditure incurred by that assignor, or by any previous assignor of the tenancy, in carrying out any such alteration or in providing or improving any such fixtures as are mentioned in the last foregoing paragraph; or
(d ) where part of the dwelling-house is used as a shop or office, or for business, trade or professional purposes, of a reasonable amount in respect of any goodwill of the business, trade or profession, being goodwill transferred to the assignee in connection with the assignment or accruing to him in consequence thereof.
(5) Where, under an agreement made after the twenty-fifth day of March, nineteen hundred and forty-nine, any premium has been paid which, or the whole of which, could not lawfully be required under the foregoing provisions of this section (or, if the premium was required before the commencement of this Act, which could not lawfully have been required if this Act had then been in force), the amount of the premium, or so much thereof as could not lawfully be required or have been required, as the case may be, shall be recoverable by the person by whom it was paid:
Provided that where an agreement has been made since the said twenty-fifth day of March and before the commencement of this Act, and the agreement includes provision for the payment of a premium which could lawfully be required under the enactments hereby repealed but which, if paid in pursuance of the agreement, would be recoverable, wholly or in part, by virtue of the foregoing provisions of this subsection, the agreement shall, without prejudice to the operation of this section, be voidable at the option of either party thereto.
(6) A person requiring any premium in contravention of this section shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds, and the court by which he is convicted may order the amount of the premium, or so much thereof as cannot lawfully be required under this section, to be repaid to the person by whom it was paid.
(7) Section eight of the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act, 1920, is hereby repealed; but, without prejudice to the operation of section thirty-eight of the Interpretation Act, 1889, nothing in this section shall be construed as affecting the operation of the said section eight as respects anything done before the commencement of this Act.
(8) For the avoidance of doubt it is hereby declared that nothing in this section shall render any amount recoverable more than once.
3 Excessive prices for furniture, &c., to be treated as premiums.
(1) Where—
(a ) whether before or after the commencement of this Act the purchase of any furniture, fittings or other articles has been required as a condition of the grant, renewal, continuance or assignment of a tenancy to which the last foregoing section applies, and
(b ) the price exceeds the reasonable price of the articles,
the excess shall be treated, for the purposes of the foregoing provisions of this Act and, so far as they continue to have effect, of the provisions of section eight of the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act, 1920, as if it were a premium required to be paid as a condition of the grant, renewal, continuance or assignment of the tenancy.
(2) Where after the commencement of this Act any such purchase as is mentioned in paragraph (a ) of the last foregoing subsection is required as...
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