Qualification Grounds
Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) Act 1967
A
Commencement.
1.—This Act shall come into operation on such day as may be appointed by order of the Minister.
Interpretation.
2.—(1) In this Act—
“the Act of 1931” means the Landlord and Tenant Act, 1931 ;
“the Act of 1958” means the Landlord and Tenant (Reversionary Leases) Act, 1958 ;
“building lease” has the meaning assigned to it by section 4 of the Act of 1958;
“business” means any trade, profession or business, whether carried on for gain or reward or not, and the public service and “used for the purposes of business” means used wholly or in part for the purposes of business;
“the Court” means the Circuit Court;
“development” has the meaning assigned to it by the Local Government (Planning and Development) Act, 1963 ;
“fee simple” does not include the interest in land of a person holding the land under a fee farm grant;
“immediate lessor”, in relation to a lessee or yearly tenant, means the person for the time being entitled to the next superior interest in the land held by the lessee or tenant, as the case may be;
“lessee” shall, where the context so admits, be construed as including the personal representatives and successors in title of the lessee;
“lessor” shall, where the context so admits, be construed as including the personal representatives and successors in title of the lessor;
“the Minister” means the Minister for Justice;
“planning authority” has the meaning assigned to it by the Local Government (Planning and Development) Act, 1963 ;
“prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made by the Minister under this Act and cognate words shall be construed accordingly;
“proprietary lease” has the meaning assigned to it by section 7 of the Act of 1958;
“superior lessor”, in relation to a lessee or yearly tenant, means any person entitled to an interest in the land held by the lessee or tenant superior to the interest of the person from whom the lessee or tenant holds the land.
(2) References in this Act to a covenant, condition or agreement in a lease include references to a reservation, stipulation or proviso or to any other similar provision in the lease.
(3) References in this Act to the county registrar for the area in which any land is situate shall, where the land is situate in theareas of two or more county registrars, be construed as references to the county registrar for the area in which the larger or largest portion of the land is situate.
(4) References in this Act to any enactment shall be construed as references to that enactment as amended by any subsequent enactment.
General right to acquire fee simple
3(5)2(a) The inclusion in the certificate signed by or on behalf of the Commissioner of Valuation on an extract from the Valuation List issued pursuant to section 9 of the Annual Revision of Rateable Property (Ireland) Amendment Act 1860, of a statement that a valuation shown in the extract is the rateable valuation obtaining on a date specified in the certificate shall be prima facie evidence for the purposes of [Part II of the Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) (No 2) Act 1978] of that fact.
(b)Where land demised by a lease or held on a yearly tenancy does not on a particular date bear a separate rateable valuation, the Commissioner of Valuation shall have power for the purposes of this subsection to apportion the rateable valuation or valuations of the properties in which the land was comprised on that date and to charge a fee for the apportionment. Every such fee shall be determined, accounted for and applied in the same manner as the fees charged by the Commissioner pursuant to the said section 9.
Provisions in relation to mortgages.
24.—(1) For the purposes of the application of section 3 or 11 of this Act or section 11 or 12 of the Act of 1958 to a person in relation to any land, the existence of a mortgage on the interest of the person in that land shall be disregarded.
(2) Where—
(a) either before or after the commencement of this Act, a lessee executes a mortgage by subdemise of the whole or part of the land comprised in his lease, retaining a nominal reversion therein, and
(b) either before or after such commencement, the land comprised in the subdemise is sold for the enforcement of the mortgage,
the purchaser shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to have acquired the interest of the lessee in the demised land for the entire of the unexpired term of the lease, including the period of the nominal reversion.
Amendment of sections 11 and 12 of Act of 1958.
25.—(1) Sections 11 and 12 of the Act of 1958 are hereby amended by the substitution in subsection (2) of each section of “three months” for “fifteen years”.
(2) Subsection (1) of this section shall not have effect in relation to a case where a valid notice under subsection (1) of the said section 11 or the said section 12, as the case may be, was served before the commencement of this Act.
Amendment of section 18 of Act of 1958.
26.—(1) Section 18 of the Act of 1958 is hereby amended by the substitution of “one-eighth” for “one-sixth” in subsection (4).
(2) The Minister may from time to time by order amend the said subsection (4) by substituting for the fraction standing specified for the time being therein another fraction.
(3) An order under this section shall not come into force unless approved by resolution of each House of the Oireachtas but, upon being so approved, shall come into force forthwith.
Amendment of section 57 of Act of 1931.
27.—Section 57 of the Act of 1931 is hereby amended by the deletion in paragraph (b) of subsection (2) of “if the alteration does not involve any structural alteration of the tenement,” and the insertion of “if the alteration does not involve the erection, provision or reconstruction (not being an improvement within the meaning of the Landlord and Tenant (Reversionary Leases) Act, 1958 ) of any building or structure.”
Improvements
28.—Section 58 of the Act of 1931 is hereby amended by the insertion after subsection (2) of the following subsections:
“(3) In every lease (whether made before or after the passing of this Act) of a tenement in which there is contained a covenant, condition or agreement prohibiting, either expressly or by virtue of subsection (1) of this section, the making thereon of any improvement without the licence or consent of the lessor, such covenant, condition or agreement shall, notwithstanding any express provision to the contrary, be subject to a proviso that no fine or sum of money in the nature of a fine (other than a reasonable sum in respect of legal or other expenses incurred by him in connection with such licence or consent) nor any increase of rent shall be payable for or in respect of such licence or consent.
(4) In this section ‘improvement’ has the meaning assigned to it by the Landlord and Tenant (Reversionary Leases) Act, 1958 .”
Relaxation of certain restrictive covenants
29 (1) Where a person who holds land under a lease (whether granted before or after the commencement of this Act) which [gives rise to a right to a reversionary lease] proposes to do, in relation to the land, anything —
(a)which is development and as respects which permission has been granted under Part IV of the Local Government (Planning and Development) Act, 1963.
(b)which is exempted development5 for the purposes of that Act or
(c)as respects which consultation is required by section 84 of that Act and has taken place to the extent required by that section,
and which, if done, would, apart from this section, be a breach of any covenant, condition or agreement in the lease prohibiting the alteration of the user of the land or the making of an improvement9 (within the meaning of [section 67(3) of the Landlord and Tenant (Amendment) Act 1980]10) thereon, the covenant, condition or agreement shall not, in so far as it prohibits such alteration or the making of such an improvement, apply or have effect in relation to that thing.
(2) Subsection (1) of this section does not apply in relation to a covenant, condition or agreement —
(a) to which section [28 of the Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) (No 2) Act 1978] applies, or
(b) which is contained in a lease made by a harbour authority, within the meaning of the Harbours Act 1946, as lessor, whether before or after the passing of this Act,
(c) which has the effect of prohibiting the erection, provision or reconstruction (not being an improvement within the meaning of [section 67(3) of the Landlord and Tenant (Amendment) Act 1980]) of any building or structure, in so far as the covenant, condition or agreement has such effect, or
(d) prohibiting any alteration of the user of the land demised by the lease which would impose a liability or an increased liability on the lessor for the payment of rates, in so far as the covenant, condition or agreement prohibits such alteration.
Variation of certain covenants to insure with particular insurer.
30.—Where a lessee under a building or proprietary lease is, by virtue of a covenant, condition or agreement (whether contained in the lease or in an ancillary or collateral agreement, not being a mortgage), required to effect a contract of insurance in relation to a building or buildings on the land demised by the lease with a specified insurer or an insurer selected or approved of either by the lessor under the lease or another person or through a specified agent, or an agent selected or approved of either by the said lessor or another person, the covenant, condition or agreement shall be construed and have effect as if it were a covenant, condition or agreement requiring the lessee to effect such contract of insurance, either directly or through any agent, as the case may be, with any insurer who is for the time being the holder of an assurance licence granted under the Insurance Act, 1936 .
Costs of leases.
32.—(1) Notwithstanding any rule of law, a party to a lease shall not be under an obligation to pay the solicitor’s costs of the lease of any other party to the lease and so much of any contract made after the commencement of this Act as provides for the payment of all or any of the solicitor’s costs of the lease of any party to the lease by any other party thereto shall be void.
(2) In this section “lease” includes an agreement for a lease or for a tenancy but does not include a mortgage by subdemise.
Certain contracts to be void.
33.—(1) Subject to subsection (2) of this section, so much of any contract made after the commencement of this Act as provides that any provision of this Act shall not apply in relation to a person or that the application of any such provision shall be varied, modified or restricted in any way in relation to a person shall be void.
(2) Nothing in this Act shall prevent a person from giving or accepting, for the purpose of the acquisition of the fee simple or other interest in land under this Act, or the apportionment of a rent under this Act, a shorter title to a fee simple or any other interest in land than the title which a purchaser is, in the absence of special contract, entitled to require.
Regulations.
34.—(1) The Minister may make regulations in relation to any matter referred to in this Act as prescribed.
(2) Every regulation made by the Minister under this Act shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by either such House within the next subsequent twenty-one days on which that House has sat after the regulation is laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under the regulation.