Rent and Mortgage Interest Restrictions Act 1939
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
Rent and Mortgage Interest Restrictions Act, 1939
(2 & 3 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 71.
An Act to continue and amend the Rent and Mortgage Interest Restrictions, Acts, 1920 to 1938.
[1st September 1939]
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 Continuance of Acts.
1. Subject to the provisions of this Act, the principal Acts shall continue in force until six months after such date as His Majesty may by Order in Council declare to be the date on which the emergency that was the occasion of the passing of this Act came to an end.
2 Repeal of s. 3 \(2) of
2. Subsection (2) of section three of the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act, 1938,(which provides for the continued application of section two of the Rent and Mortgage Interest Restrictions Act, 1923, to certain classes of dwelling-houses) is hereby repealed.
3 Application of Acts.
(1) Without prejudice to the operation of the two preceding sections in relation to any dwelling-house to which the principal Acts applied immediately before the commencement of this Act, the principal Acts, as amended by the last preceding section, shall, subject to the provisions of this section, apply to every other dwelling-house of which the rateable value on the appropriate day did not exceed—
(a ) in the metropolitan police district or the city of London, one hundred pounds;
(b ) in Scotland, ninety pounds; or
(c ) elsewhere, seventy-five pounds;
and in relation to any such dwelling-house as aforesaid, not being a dwelling-house to which the principal Acts applied immediately before the commencement of this Act, the provisions of the Rent and Mortgage Interest Restrictions Acts, 1920 to 1933, set out in the first column of the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect as if there were made in those provisions the modifications respectively prescribed by that Schedule.
(2) The principal Acts shall not, by virtue of this section, apply—
(a ) to any dwelling-house consisting of, or comprising, premises licensed for the sale of intoxicating liquor for consumption on the premises; or
(b ) save as is expressly provided in the said Acts, as amended by virtue of this section, to any dwelling-house bona fide let at a rent which includes payments in respect of board, attendance or use of furniture; or
(c ) to any dwelling-house being, or forming part of, a house or dwelling in respect of which a local authority for the purposes of Part V of the Housing Act, 1936 , are required by section one hundred and twenty-eight of that Act to keep a Housing Revenue Account, other than a house or dwelling to which subsection (3) of section one hundred and twenty-nine of that Act applies.
(3) Subject to the provisions of paragraph (a ) of the last preceding subsection, the application of the principal Acts, by virtue of this section, to any dwelling-house shall not be excluded by reason only that part of the premises is used as a shop or office or for business, trade or professional purposes; and for the purposes of the Rent and Mortgage Interest Restrictions Acts, 1920 to 1938, as amended by virtue of this section, any land or premises let together with a dwelling-house shall, unless the land or premises so let consists or consist of agricultural land exceeding two acres in extent, be treated as part of the dwelling-house; but, save as aforesaid, the principal Acts shall not, by virtue of this section, apply to any dwelling-house let together with land other than the site of the dwelling-house.
4 Application of Act to pending proceedings.
4. Where, in relation to any dwelling-house to which the principal Acts apply by virtue only of the last preceding section, any order or judgment has been made or given by a court before the commencement of this Act, but has not been executed, and, in the opinion of the court, the order or judgment would not have been made or given if this Act had been in operation at the time when the order or judgment was made or given, the court may, on application by the tenant, rescind or vary the order or judgment in such manner as the court thinks fit for the purpose of giving effect to this Act.
5 Repeal of s. 5 of 23 & 24 Geo. 5. c. 32.
5. Section five of the Rent and Mortgage Interest Restrictions (Amendment) Act, 1933, (which excepts certain dwelling-houses of low value from the restriction on the right to possession imposed by section five of the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act, 1920) shall cease to have effect.
6 Exercise of power to make rules when Great Seal incommission.
6. Any power vested in the Lord Chancellor to make rules or give directions for the purpose of giving effect to the principal Acts may, when the Great Seal is in commission, be exercised by any Lord Commissioner.
7 Interpretation.
(1) In this Act the following expressions have the meanings hereby respectively assigned to them, that is to say:—
‘agricultural land’ has the meaning assigned to that expression by section two of the Rating and Valuation (Apportionment) Act, 1928 ;
‘rateable value on the appropriate day,’ in relation to any dwelling-house, means (subject to the following provisions of this section) the value shown, with respect to that dwelling-house, on that day in the valuation list then in force, as the rateable value or, where the net annual value differs from the rateable value, as the net annual value; and
‘the appropriate day’ means, as respects the administrative county of London, the sixth day of April, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, or, as respects the remainder of England, the first day of April, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine;
and other expressions have the same meanings as in the Rent and Mortgage Interest Restrictions (Amendment) Act, 1933.
(2) In relation to any dwelling-house of which the rateable value on the appropriate day was not on that day separately assessed, any reference in the preceding provisions of this Act to the rateable value on the appropriate day shall be construed as a reference to such proportion of...
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