The Landlord And Tenant (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1958
| Date | 01 January 1959 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1959.tb00512.x |
| Published date | 01 January 1959 |
JAN.
1969
STATUTES
59
might be thought desirable to make provision for this “one way
or
the other” in any legislation
on
this subject.18 But section
1 (5)
of the new Act provides that the Act shall not apply
to
trusts
affecting property settled by Act of Parliament.
It
will continue
to be necessary to go to Parliament to break any subsisting
parliamentary entails.1B
Some lawyers and others may regret that the jurisdiction con-
ferred by the new Act provides
s‘
tax
planners
”
with a new means
of achieving their purpose of saving tax and estate duty for their
clients. These critics will remember Lord Morton’s fear, expressed
in
Chapman
v.
Chapman,
that there might develop “a most
undignified game of chess between the Chancery Division and the
legislature
”
2o
if
the courts were allowed an unlimited jurisdiction
to remodel trusts. But all who admired Lord Denning’s dissenting
judgment in
Chapman
v.
Chapman,
and even those who disagreed
with him, will surely welcome the disappearance
of
the anomalies
discussed
in
the Law Reform Committee’s Third Report and the
absurd, hair-splitting technicalities
of
the limited jurisdiction to
remodel trusts which survived
Chapman
v.
Chapman;
and this
writer, at least, believes that there will be
no
“
undignified game of
chess.”
LEOLIN
PRICE.
THE
LANDLORD
AND
TENANT (TEBWORARY PROVISIONS) ACT,
1958
THE
Rent Act,
1957,
gave to a tenant whose house was decontrolled
by reason
of
its rateable value a breathing space of fifteen months
which came to an end
on
October
6,
1958.
That was the earliest
date upon which the six-months’ notice terminating his right of
occupation could take effect. During that period he retained
security of tenure and
if
the landlord wanted to put up his rent
he had to offer him a three-year lease. There was
no
obligation
put upon landlords to offer such a lease although from time to time
the Minister of Housing and Local Government belaboured those
who did not do
so.
In
the result some tenants accepted three-year
leases which by all accounts were usually
on
reasonable terms
but sometimes were very onerous indeed. Others bought the
house in which they were living
or
another house
or
moved out
to relatives. But there remained a considerable hard core of
tenants who had not been offered leases by their landlords and
who faced eviction
on
October
6
without having been able to
make any alternative arrangements.
To
these at the eleventh hour
the Landlord and Tenant (Temporary Provisions) Act,
1958,
has
brought some further relief.
18 Cmnd. 310 at
p.
9.
19
Readers will remember B recent unsuccessful attempt to break, by private
legislation, the parliamentary entail affecting the Duke of Norfolk’a settled
estates.
20
[l964] A.C.
429
at
468.
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