Slum Clearance (Compensation) Act 1956
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1956 c. 57 |
| Year | 1956 |
Slum Clearance (Compensation) Act , 1956
(4 & 5 Eliz. 2) CHAPTER 57
An Act to make additional provision for payments in respect of certain unfit houses subject to compulsory purchase, clearance, demolition or closing orders; and for purposes connected therewith.
Be it enacted by the Queen'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 Payments in respect of unfit houses occupied by owners.
(1) Where, on the thirteenth day of December, nineteen hundred and fifty-five, a house was wholly or partly occupied as a private dwelling by (or by a member of the family of) a person who acquired an interest in that house by purchase for value during the material period, then if at any time during the ten years commencing with the said date that house has been purchased at site value in pursuance of a compulsory purchase order or vacated in pursuance of a clearance order, demolition order or closing order and if at the date when the house was purchased compulsorily or, as the case may be, vacated the person aforesaid or a member of his family was entitled to an interest in the house, the appropriate authority shall make in respect of that interest a payment of an amount equal to its full compulsory purchase value less the compensation which was or would have been payable in respect of the interest in connection with the compulsory purchase of the house at site value:
Provided that any amount which would otherwise be payable under this section shall be reduced by so much, if any, of that amount as may reasonably be attributed to any part of the house occupied at the date of the making of the order for any purposes other than those of a private dwelling.
(2) The foregoing subsection shall have effect—
(a ) where a person ceased to occupy a house or part of a house not more than one year before the said thirteenth day of December by reason only of a posting in the course of his duties as a member of the armed forces of the Crown or of a change in the place of his employment or occupation, as if that person had occupied that house or part on that day in like manner as immediately before he ceased to occupy it; and
(b ) where a house had been vacated before the said thirteenth day of December in consequence of the making of a compulsory purchase order in respect thereof or in pursuance of a clearance order, demolition order or closing order but the demolition of that house had not been started by that day, as if that house had been occupied on that day by the same person and in the like manner as immediately before it was vacated and, in the case of a clearance, demolition or closing order, as if it had been vacated immediately after that day.
(3) Any question arising under the proviso to subsection (1) of this section as to the purposes for which any part of a house was occupied shall be determined by the Minister, and subject thereto the amount of any payment in respect of an interest under this section shall be determined (in default of agreement), and any such payment shall be dealt with, as if it were compensation payable in respect of a compulsory purchase of the interest under Part III of the principal Act:
Provided that, in relation to an interest which, at the date when the house was purchased compulsorily or, as the case may be, vacated, was held by virtue of an agreement to purchase by instalments, this subsection shall have effect as if the words ‘and any such payment shall be dealt with’ were omitted therefrom, and the payment shall be made to the person entitled to the interest at the said date.
(4) Where a payment falls to be made under this section in respect of any person's interest in a house and at the date when the house was purchased compulsorily or, as the case may be, vacated, that interest was the subject of a mortgage or other charge or an agreement to purchase by instalments, either party to the mortgage, charge or agreement may apply to the county court who, after giving to the other party to the mortgage, charge or agreement an opportunity of being heard, may, if the court thinks fit, make an order—
(a ) in the case of a house which has been purchased compulsorily, discharging or modifying any outstanding liabilities of the person aforesaid by virtue of any bond, covenant or other obligation with respect to the debt secured by the mortgage or charge or by virtue of the agreement; or
(b ) in the case of a house vacated in pursuance of a clearance order, demolition order or closing order, discharging or modifying the terms of the mortgage, charge or agreement,
and in either case either unconditionally or subject to such terms and conditions, including conditions with respect to the payment of moneys, as the court may think just and equitable to impose.
(5) In determining in any case what order, if any, to make under the last foregoing subsection, the court shall have regard to all the circumstances of the case, and in particular, in the case of a mortgage or charge—
(a ) to whether the mortgagee or person entitled to the benefit of the charge acted reasonably in advancing the principal sum on the terms of the mortgage or charge; and
(b ) to the extent to which the house may have become unfit for human habitation owing to any default on the part of the mortgagor or person entitled to the interest charged in carrying out any obligation under the terms of the mortgage or charge with respect to the repair of the house,
or, in the case of an agreement to purchase by instalments, to how far the amount...
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