Repairs
Deasy’s Act
Prevention of waste, and law of repairs.
Justice’s precept to restrain waste.
35. Where any person shall be in possession of lands, or of any dwelling house, outhouse, or buildings, as tenant thereof, or as a servant or caretaker of any owner, or having obtained the possession thereof from any such tenant, servant, or caretaker, and the landlord or owner or other person interested in the preservation of the premises, or any agent acting on his behalf, shall, by affidavit, satisfy any justice of the peace of the county, not being a party interested in the said premises, (who is hereby authorized and required to take such affidavit,) that there exists probable and just grounds of suspicion that such person is about to commit or to permit or suffer any unlawful waste, injury, alteration, destruction upon, or removal from any such dwelling house, outhouse, or other building, or intends unlawfully to turn or break up any part of the soil or surface or subsoil of the lands, or unlawfully to remove the soil or surface or subsoil of the said lands, or unlawfully to cut down, top, lop, or grub any trees, woods, or underwoods growing on the said lands, or otherwise use or misuse the premises or any part thereof, contrary to his agreement, or that he is in the act of doing or suffering any of the aforesaid matters, it shall be lawful for such justice of the peace to issue his precept in writing under his hand and seal, stating that information had been received that such waste or injury is intended to be or is in the act of being done or permitted, and commanding all such persons and all other persons whomsoever to desist from such waste or injury, and not to continue the same until special leave and authority for that purpose shall be first procured from the magistrate who shall have signed such precept, or until the subject matter of the said information be inquired into at the next petty sessions of the district in which the said premises are situate, or such other time as may be therein mentioned; and such precept may be according to the Form No. 1 in the Schedule (A.) to this Act annexed, and shall be served on every or any person by whom it shall be suspected that such waste or injury is intended to be or is being committed, by delivering a copy thereof to such person, if he can be found, and, if not, by affixing a copy thereof on the principal door or entrance to the dwelling-house, outhouse, or other building, and, if there be no such house or building, on some conspicuous part of the premises; and the said persons shall and may attend at the petty sessions, and such order may be made thereat by the court of petty sessions for annulling or continuing for a limited period the said precept, or otherwise, as may be agreeable to justice.
On destruction of subject of the lease, tenant may surrender the lease.
40. If any dwelling house or other building constituting the substantial matter of the demise, and holden by any tenant under any lease or other contract of tenancy not containing an express covenant or agreement binding on the tenant to repair the same, shall be destroyed, become ruinous and uninhabitable, or incapable of beneficial occupation or enjoyment, by accidental fire or other inevitable accident, and without the default or neglect of the said tenant, it shall be lawful for such tenant to surrender the said premises; and on tendering the said surrender and on payment of all rent and arrears due or accruing due, or tendering the same, the said tenant shall be thenceforth discharged from all obligation to pay the rent or perform the covenants and conditions in the lease thenceforward.
Agreements implied on behalf of tenant.
42. Every lease of lands or tenements made after the commencement of this Act (unless otherwise expressly provided by such lease) imply the following agreements on the part of the tenant for the time being, his heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns, with the landlord thereof; that is to say,
1. That the tenant shall pay, when due, the rent reserved and all taxes and impositions payable by the tenant, and shall keep the premises in good and substantial repair and condition:
2. That the tenant shall give peaceable possession of the demised premises, in good and substantial repair and condition, on the determination of the lease (accidents by fire without the tenant’s default excepted), subject, however, to any right of removal (or of compensation for improvements) that may have lawfully arisen in respect of them, and to any right of surrender in case of the destruction of the subject matter of the lease as herein-before mentioned.
Landlord and Tenant (Amendment ) Act
Covenants against making improvements.
[1931, s. 58; 1967, s. 28]
68.— (1) A covenant in a lease (whether made before or after the commencement of this Act) of a tenement absolutely prohibiting the making of any improvement within the meaning of section 67 (3) on the tenement shall have effect as if it were a covenant prohibiting the making of the improvement without the licence or consent of the lessor.
(2) In every lease (whether made before or after the commencement of this Act) of a tenement in which there is contained a covenant prohibiting either expressly or by virtue of subsection (1), the making of any improvement within the meaning of section 67 (3) on the tenement without the licence or consent of the lessor, the covenant shall, notwithstanding any express provision to the contrary, be subject—
( a) to a proviso that the licence or consent shall not be unreasonably withheld, and
( b) 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 the licence or consent) nor any increase of rent shall be payable for or in respect of the licence or consent.
Annotations:
Modifications (not altering text):
C21
Application of section restricted (6.12.2004) by Residential Tenancies Act 2004 (27/2004), s. 193(d), S.I. No. 750 of 2004.
Non-application of certain enactments.
193.—None of the following enactments applies to a dwelling to which this Act applies— …
(d) sections 66, 67 and 68 of the Landlord and Tenant (Amendment) Act 1980, and
Damages for breach of covenants to repair.
[1931, s. 55]
65.— (1) Where a lease (whether made before or after the commencement of this Act) of a tenement contains a covenant (whether express or implied and whether general or specific) on the part of the lessee to put or to keep the tenement in repair during the currency of the lease or to leave or put the tenement in repair at the expiration of the lease and there has been a breach of the covenant, the subsequent provisions of this section shall have effect.
(2) The damages recoverable in any court for the breach shall not in any case exceed the amount (if any) by which the value of the reversion (whether mediate or immediate) in the tenement is diminished owing to the breach.
(3) Save where the want of repair is shown to be due, wholly or substantially, to wilful damage or wilful waste committed by the lessee no damages shall be recoverable in any court for the breach if it is shown—
( a) that, having regard to the age and condition of the tenement, its repair in accordance with the covenant is physically impossible, or
( b) that, having regard to the age, condition, character and situation of the tenement, its repair in accordance with the covenant would involve expenditure which is excessive in proportion to the value of the tenement, or
( c) that, having regard to the character and situation of the tenement, the tenement could not when so repaired be profitably used or could not be profitably used unless it were re-built, re-constructed or structurally altered to a substantial extent.