War Damage Act 1941

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Citation1941 c. 12


War Damage Act, 1941

(4 & 5 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 12.

An Act to make provision with respect to war damage to immovable properly and to goods.

[26th March 1941]

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:—

I Buildings and other Immovable Property.

Part I.

Buildings and other Immovable Property.

The War Damage Commission.

The War Damage Commission.

S-1 Constitution and functions of War Damage Commission.

1 Constitution and functions of War Damage Commission.

(1) For the purposes of this Act there shall be constituted a Commission, to be called the War Damage Commission (in this Act referred to as ‘the Commission’) consisting of persons appointed by the Treasury in accordance with the First Schedule to this Act, which shall be charged with the duty of executing the provisions of this Part of this Act relating to the making of payments in respect of war damage to land, and shall exercise such other functions as are conferred upon them by this Act.

(2) The Commission shall, as respects such matters as may be specified in regulations made by the Treasury, exercise their functions under this Act (including any discretionary power exercisable by them) subject to and in accordance with the provisions of regulations so made:

Provided that any regulations made for the purposes of this subsection shall be of a general character, and nothing in this subsection shall be construed as authorising the making of any regulations requiring the Commission to exercise any of its functions in a manner inconsistent with the provisions of this Act.

(3) The provisions of the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect with respect to the constitution and procedure of the Commission.

Payments. Nature, amount and provisions for securing the pubic interest.

Payments. Nature, amount and provisions for securing the pubic interest.

S-2 Payments under Part I and hereditaments that are to be units for purposes thereof.

2 Payments under Part I and hereditaments that are to be units for purposes thereof.

(1) Payments shall be made by the Commission, subject to and in accordance with the provisions of this Part of this Act, in respect of war damage to land occurring during the risk period.

(2) For the purposes of the provisions of this Part of this Act relating to such payments, land sustaining war damage as aforesaid shall, subject to the provisions of the next succeeding subsection, be dealt with in such units as the Commission may determine, and land which is to constitute a unit for those purposes is in this Part of this Act referred to as a ‘hereditament’.

(3) Hereditaments shall be of two kinds consisting respectively of—

(a ) buildings (excluding buildings the use of which is accessory to the use of other land and which would not be readily marketable apart from that other land) or parts of such buildings, and the sites of such building or of parts thereof; and

(b ) land other than as aforesaid:

Provided that there shall be included in a hereditament that comprises a building falling within paragraph (a ) of this subsection, or a part of such a building, any land (including a building) which, though not falling within that paragraph, might be expected ordinarily to be occupied with the first-mentioned building or part and is so situated that war damage thereto, if not made good, would be likely to affect substantially the value of the first-mentioned building or part.

A hereditament that comprises a building falling within paragraph (a ) of this subsection, or a part of such a building, is in this Part of this Act referred to as a ‘developed hereditament’.

S-3 Nature and amount of payments.

3 Nature and amount of payments.

(1) Subject to the provisions of this Part of this Act, a payment to be made thereunder shall be of one or other of two kinds, in this Part of this Act referred to respectively as a ‘payment of cost of works’ and a ‘value payment’.

(2) The amount of a payment of cost of works shall be computed as follows:—

(a ) If the war damage is made good by reinstating the hereditament in the form in which it existed immediately before the occurrence of the damage, the amount of the payment shall be an amount equal to the proper cost of the works executed for the making good thereof:

Provided that if the reinstatement of any part of the hereditament could have been omitted without detracting from its value, or the omission thereof would have increased the value of the hereditament, the amount of the payment shall be reduced to what it would have been if that part had not been reinstated.

In this Part of this Act the expression ‘the permissible amount’ means, in relation to a payment of cost of works, the amount that is payable by virtue of this paragraph or that would have been payable if this paragraph had had effect in relation to the payment.

(b ) If the war damage is made good by works which include alterations or additions to the hereditament, the amount of the payment shall be an amount equal to so much of the proper cost of the works executed for the making good of the damage as falls within the permissible amount.

(3) In this Part of this Act the expression ‘proper cost’ means, in relation to any works, such cost as is reasonable, having regard to the prices of materials and rates of remuneration for services current when the works are executed and to all other relevant circumstances, and in computing the proper cost of any works the cost of the necessary employment of an architect, engineer, surveyor, land agent, or other person in an advisory or supervisory capacity, in connection with the execution of the works, shall be treated as part of the cost of the works.

(4) The amount of a value payment shall be an amount equal to the amount of the depreciation in the value of the hereditament caused by the war damage, that is to say, the amount by which the value of the hereditament in the state in which it was immediately after the occurrence of the damage is less than its value in the state in which it was immediately before the occurrence of the damage.

(5) For the purposes of the last preceding subsection, the value of a hereditament in the state in which it was at any time shall be ascertained by reference to prices current at the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, and shall be taken to be the amount which the fee simple in the hereditament in that state might have been expected to realise on a sale thereof made in the open market on the said day with vacant possession, subject to any restrictive covenant, easement, quasi-easement, or other right inuring for the benefit of other land, any public right of way, right of common, or other right inuring for the benefit of the public or of any section thereof, and any restriction or liability imposed by or under an enactment, to which the hereditament was subject at that time, but free from any other incumbrance;

Provided that provision may be made by regulations made by the Treasury for the valuation by reference to such matters as may be therein specified of hereditaments consisting of or comprising premises of a kind not normally the subject of sales in the open market, or having a value which could not be fully realised on such a sale.

(6) The amount of a payment of cost of works shall be reduced by an amount equal to the value, ascertained in accordance with regulations made by the Treasury, of any articles which formed part of the hereditament and become available as materials in consequence, whether directly or indirectly, of the war damage, and in computing the amount of a value payment the value, ascertained as aforesaid, of any such articles shall be included in the value of the hereditament in the state in which it was immediately after the occurrence of the war damage:

Provided that—

(a ) where any such articles are removed in exercise of emergency powers, otherwise than pursuant to a requisition, the amount of the payment shall be computed as if they had been wholly destroyed on the occurrence of the damage; and

(b ) where any such articles are requisitioned, the amount of the payment shall be computed as mentioned in the preceding proviso and then reduced by the amount of the sum payable under the Compensation (Defence) Act, 1939 , or under any such agreement as is mentioned in section fifteen of that Act, in respect of the requisition, or which would have been so payable if a claim therefor had been duly made under that Act.

S-4 Cases in which payments of cost of works and value payments respectively are to be made.

4 Cases in which payments of cost of works and value payments respectively are to be made.

(1) Subject as provided by subsection (2) of this section, the question whether a payment under this Part of this Act is to be a payment of cost of works or a value payment shall be determined as follows, that is to say—

(a ) in the case of a developed hereditament the payment shall be a payment of cost of works unless the damage involves total loss, that is to say, is such that the making good thereof would be likely to require works costing more than the difference between the value which the hereditament would have after the execution of the works and the value which the hereditament, with the damage not made good, would have as a site;

(b ) in the case of a hereditament not being a developed hereditament the payment shall be a payment of cost of works in a case only in which the permissible amount of that payment would be likely to be less than the amount of a value payment in respect of the damage.

(2) The preceding subsection shall have effect subject to the provisions of section seven of this Act for securing the public interest in the making of payments under this Part of this Act, and...

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