The Gazette 1967/71

SUMMARY OF CORRESPONDENCE RE: PROPOSED LANDLORD & TENANT BILL The Council of the Dublin Solicitors Bar Associa tion has been in correspondence with the Minister for Justice regarding some difficulties which arose out of the interpretation of the Statement issued by the Government Information Bureau on be half of the Minister for Justice on the 3rd March 1970 dealing with the proposed Landlord & Tenant Bill. The Statement was in the following- form : At a meeting of 3rd March, 1970, the Govern ment considered the legislative proposals of the Minister for Justice arising out of the Second Report of the Landlord and Tenant Commission, dealing with the question of extending leasehold renewal rights and the right to purchase the fee simple to new classes of tenants, including tenants of land used for outdoor sports. The Government approved of the Minister's proposals for imple menting, with minor amendments, the recom mendations of the Commission and authorised the draft of the necessary Bill. Because, of neces sity, some time must elapse before the proposals approved by the Government take shape in legisla tion, the Government have decided that the legis lation should be expressed to operate from to-day (3rd March, 1970). Accordingly, the Bill to be placed before the Oireachtas will include a pro vision to ensure that the benefits accruing under the legislation will operate from 3 March, 1970, even in the case of tenancies which in the ordinary way would have terminated before the date of the enactment of the proposed Act. The main legis lative proposals approved by the Government are as follows : (1) Sports organisations who hold land for recreational purposes will, in certain circums tances, be given the right to renew their tenancies. To qualify, the club or organisation must hold the land under a lease for 25 years, or, alternatively, have occupied the land for 25 years out of the preceding 40 years, and have expended 15 times the rent or a minimum of £1,000 on the lands. (2) The right to a reversionary lease (and the right to purchase the fee simple) will be extended to a new class of lessees holding under pre-1931 leases. (3) The right to purchase the fee simple given

in the Ground Rents Act, 1967, will be extended in certain cases to persons holding under leases for 50 years or more (instead of 99 years or more). (4) Tenants of vacant building land in built- up areas will be given the right to acquire the fee simple on the terms of purchase applicable to ground rent leases, provided they have planning permission to build. (5) The rent on renewal of a ground rent lease will be determined with due allowance for improvements made by the tenant. The proposed Bill will also cover changes in the law arising out of the First Report of the Landlord and Tenant Commission dealing with occupational tenancies. The main changes pro posed in the law as to occupational tenancies are as follows : (6) The tenancy on renewal will be for 35 years, instead of the present 21 years, with pro- vis on for a review of the rent by either landlord or tenant every 7 years. (7) A landlord will, in certain circumstances and on payment of compensation, be able to re cover possession of buildings which are obsolete or in an obsolete area before the lease expires. (8) The requirements as to notice in relation to compensation payable to a tenant for improve ments made by him are to be relaxed, and so also are the conditions which he must satisfy in order to obtain a renewal of his tenancy. Members of the profession found that two in terpretations were being given to the Statement in so far as its retrospective provisions were con cerned, the first being that the retrospective pro visions would only relate to legislative proposals numbered 1 to 5 in the Statement and the second being that they would relate to all eight pro posals. A second difficulty arose out of the interpreta tion of paragraph 8 in the Statement, because it was not clear whether the proposals would adopt all the recommendations of the Report on Occu pational Tenancies under the Landlord & Tenant Act 1931 (PR. No. 9685) published in November 1967 and that if it were intended that proposals numbered 6 and 7 would have retrospective effect then it was of cardinal importance to practitioners to know precisely what the proposals referred to in paragraph 8 were before a solicitor could advise his landlord or tenant client as to his existing rights. Accordingly on the 30th July 1970 the Secretary of the Dublin Solicitors Bar Associa-