Landlord and Tenant (Requisitioned Land) Act 1942
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1942 c. 13 |
| Year | 1942 |
Landlord and Tenant (Requisitioned Land) Act, 1942
(5 & 6 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 13.
An Act to provide for the disclaimer of leases comprising land of which possession has been taken in the exercise of emergency powers, for the adjustment of the rights of the parties to such leases with respect to certain buildings and fixtures, for the reduction in certain cases of the rent and other periodical sums payable under or in connection with leases comprising such land, for requiring the continuance, after possession of such land has been taken as aforesaid, of certain services provided by the landlord, and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[26th March 1942]
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 Right to disclaim certain leases of requisitioned land.
(1) Where possession of all the land comprised in a lease to which this Act applies has been taken on behalf of His Majesty in the exercise of emergency powers, and the land or the main part thereof was, immediately before possession was so taken being used by the tenant or by a member of the tenant's family as his residence, or for the purposes of his business, or partly as his residence and partly for the purposes of his business, the tenant may, within three months from the material date, serve on the landlord a notice (in this Act referred to as a ‘notice of disclaimer’) stating that he disclaims the lease:
Provided that a notice of disclaimer shall not be served unless at the time when it is served possession of the land to which it relates is retained in the exercise of emergency powers.
(2) For the purposes of this section—
(a ) land shall not be deemed to be used by any person as his residence, if he uses it only as a week-end or holiday residence or resides there only on occasional visits, but the fact that he was not actually residing there immediately before possession of the land was taken as aforesaid shall not necessarily mean that he was not then using the land as his residence;
(b ) land shall not be deemed to be used for the purposes of a business, if that business, so far as it was previously carried on there, has been wholly or mainly closed down or transferred to other premises, and the land is no longer used for the purposes of the business except—
(i) as a business address or otherwise for the purpose of preserving business connections, or
(ii) to store furniture, plant or other property not removed from the land, or
(iii) for some other purpose not involving the substantial use of the land.
(3) Where a notice of disclaimer has been served, the landlord may, at any time within one month from the service of the notice, apply to the court to determine whether the notice is of no effect on the ground that the conditions specified in subsection (1) of this section are not fulfilled, and, if any such application is made, it shall lie with the tenant to show that the said conditions are fulfilled, and, unless it is decided by the court on such an application that the notice is of no effect on the said ground, the said conditions shall be deemed to be fulfilled.
(4) Where possession of part only of the land comprised in a lease has been taken as aforesaid, or possession of part of the land so taken has been given up, and, if all the land had been so taken and retained, the conditions specified in subsection (1) of this section would have been fulfilled in respect thereof, the court may, on the application of the tenant made within three months from the material date, direct that this section shall have effect as if possession had been so taken and retained of all the land comprised in the lease, and shall, if it considers necessary, extend the period within which a notice of disclaimer may be served.
The court shall, in considering any application under this subsection, have regard (among other matters) to the question whether it is reasonably practicable for the occupier to use the part of the land which has not been taken, or is not retained, as a residence, or, as the case may be, for the purposes of his business.
2 Effect of notice of disclaimer.
(1) Where a notice of disclaimer has been served, and the court has not decided under the foregoing section that it is of no effect, the notice shall become effective subject to any order of the court under this section, at the expiration of one month from the service of the notice or, if an application has been made to the court under subsection (3) of the foregoing section, of such further period (if any) as the court may allow.
(2) Where a notice of disclaimer has become effective, the lease disclaimed shall be deemed to have been surrendered as from the material date and all interests in or derived out of the term created by the lease disclaimed shall be deemed to have been extinguished as from the said date.
(3) Where any holding within the meaning of the Agricultural Holdings Act, 1923 , is disclaimed under this Act, the tenancy shall, for the purposes of sections nine and ten and subsection (2) of section sixteen of that Act, be deemed to terminate at the date on which the notice of disclaimer becomes effective in accordance with subsection (1) of this section.
(4) Where a notice of disclaimer has been served under this Act, the court may—
(a ) on the application of any person having a mortgage or charge in respect of the term created by the lease disclaimed, vest the lease in that person on such terms as the court thinks just, which may include adaptations or modifications of the terms of the lease;
(b ) on the application of the landlord or the tenant, make such adaptations or modifications as the court thinks just of any term of the lease relating to repairing obligations and, in particular, require the tenant to pay such sum as it thinks just in respect of any dilapidations which have already occurred and for which the tenant is liable or would (but for the disclaimer) become liable;
(c ) on the application of the landlord or the tenant, make such adaptations and modifications as it thinks just of any term of the lease imposing any liability on either party which will take effect on the surrender of the lease;
and any such application may be made at any time before the notice of disclaimer becomes effective.
(5) Within seven days from the service of a notice of disclaimer, the tenant shall serve upon any person having a mortgage or charge in respect of the term created by the lease disclaimed a copy of the notice of disclaimer and the name and address of the landlord, and if he fails to do so, he shall be liable to make good to any such person any damage suffered by that person by reason of the failure.
3 Multiple leases.
(1) Where possession of all the land comprised in a multiple lease to which this Act applies has been taken and is retained on behalf of His Majesty in the exercise of emergency powers, and all the separate tenements comprised in the lease are tenements (hereafter in this section referred to as ‘disclaimable tenements’) which the tenant holding under the multiple lease would, if he held them under separate leases, be entitled to disclaim under section one of this Act, he may serve a notice of disclaimer under that section in respect of the lease, and subsection (3) of that section shall apply to any such notice as if the reference to the conditions specified in subsection (1) of that section were a reference to the conditions specified in this subsection, but, save as aforesaid, section one of this Act shall not apply in the case of multiple leases, and the following provisions of this section shall have effect in lieu thereof.
(2) Where possession of one or some of the tenements comprised in a multiple lease, being a disclaimable tenement or disclaimable tenements, has been taken and is retained as aforesaid, and the remainder of the tenements comprised in the lease either have not been taken or are not retained or are not disclaimable tenements, the tenant may, within three months from the material date, apply to the court for permission to serve a notice of disclaimer either in respect of the lease as a whole or in respect of one or more of the separate tenements comprised therein.
(3) If, on any such application for permission to serve a notice of disclaimer in respect of the lease as a whole, the court is satisfied, having regard to the extent to which possession has been taken and retained as aforesaid of the land comprised in the lease and the extent to which the tenements are disclaimable tenements and all the circumstances of the case, that it is equitable to allow the tenant to disclaim the lease as a whole, it shall direct that the tenant shall be at liberty to serve, within such period as may be specified, a notice of disclaimer in respect of the lease as a whole:
Provided that, if the court gives such a direction in a case where possession of any tenement comprised in the lease has not been taken or is not retained as aforesaid, the court may, if it thinks just, direct that the rent payable under the lease and, if the tenement is sub-let, the rent payable under the under-lease shall, notwithstanding the disclaimer, be payable, to such extent as may be directed, in respect of the period beginning with the material date and ending with the date on which the notice of disclaimer becomes effective, and the provisions of this Act relating to the apportionment of rent shall have effect subject to any such direction.
(4) If, on any such application for permission to serve a notice of disclaimer either in respect of the lease as a whole or as respects one or more of the separate tenements comprised therein, the court is...
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