Statutes
| Published date | 01 November 1957 |
| Date | 01 November 1957 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1957.tb02723.x |
STATUTES
THE RENT ACT,
1957
Now
that the controversial Rent Bill has passed into law
it
is
thought that readers of this
Review
may care for a brief summary
of the main provisions of the new Act. The present reviewer
previously contributed a critical assessment of the Bill shortly after
it
had been introduced into the Commons.' As anticipated the
Bill has undergone little change in its final form and most,
if
not
all, of the criticisms raised in $he earlier review still seem to be
relevant.
In
view, however, of the various waiting periods provided
in the Act
it
is still too early to assess the ultimate results of its
provisions, though
it
is already apparent that (as suggested in the
earlier review) the main hardships are likely to arise in the category
of houses totally freed from control, rather than in the category
where control is retained but at increased rents.
In
particular, one
of the unproved assumptions underlying the Act,
viz.,
that those
who are unable to pay the new market level of uncontrolled rents
will be able to find alternative accommodation released as a result
of the operation of the Act itself, will only be finally put
to
the test
when the fifteen months' waiting period has expired. None the
less,
it
is
not too early even now to take note of the great burden
of anxiety that has been placed upon hundreds
of
thousands
of
tenants, which even
if
in many cases
it
may ultimately prove
excessive or unjustified, is nevertheless likely to continue during
many months of uncertainty while the actual effect
of
the Act
gradually clarifies itself with the passage of time.
In
this connec-
tion the newly introduced provision for a three years' agreement
may serve to enable a tenant to achieve security of tenure and with
it
peace of mind for a period, but there is already some evidence
at least that this machinery can be, and is in some cases being, used
by landlords to exact an excessive rent for the three-year period.
The purpose of this note, however, is not
to
repeat earlier
criticisms
or
raise fresh ones regarding the Act. Time only will
show whether the many attacks to which the Bill was subjected
were well-founded
or
not.
Nor
is
it
felt that any useful purpose
can be served
in
this place by an attempt to answer the many
doubtful points
or
to elucidate the many obscurities which charac-
terise this complex measure, whose involved style is only too
familiar to all those who have had to wrestle with
our
earlier rent
control statutes. The rest of this note, therefore, will be confined
to a short survey of the main provisions
of
the Act, with some
reference to any significant changes made in the form of the original
Bill
as
introduced into the Commons last year.
1
See
(1957)
20
M.L.R.
p.
157.
627
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