HC Deb 01 July 1920 vol 131 cc883-8

(1)This Act shall apply to Scotland, subject to the following modifications:—

  1. (a)"Mortgage" and "incumbrance" means a heritable security including a security constituted by absolute disposition qualified by back bond or letter; "mortgagor" and "mortgagee" mean respectively the debtor and the creditor in a heritable security; "covenant" means obligation; "mortgaged property" means the heritable subject or subjects included in a heritable security; "rateable value" means yearly value according to the valuation roll; "rate-able value on the third day of August nineteen hundred and fourteen" means yearly value according to the valuation roll for the year ending fifteenth day of May nineteen hundred and fifteen; "assessed" means entered in the valuation roll; "land" means lands and heritages; "rates" means assessments as defined in the House Letting and Rating (Scotland) 884 Act, 1911; "Lord Chancellor" and "High Court" mean the Court of Session; "rules" means act of sederunt; "County Court" means the sheriff court; "sanitary authority" means the local authority under the Public Health (Scotland) Act, 1897; "mesne profits" means profits; the Board of Agriculture for Scotland shall be substituted for the Ministry of Agriculture; the twenty-eighth day of May shall be substituted for the twenty-fifth day of June; the reference to the county agricultural committee shall be construed as a reference to the body of persons constituted with respect to any area by the Board of Agriculture for Scotland under Subsection (2) of Section eleven of the Corn Production Act, 1917; references to levying distress shall be construed as references to doing diligence; a reference to Section five of the Housing, Town Planning, &c. (Scotland) Act, 1919, shall be substituted for a reference to Section seven of the Housing, Town Planning, &c., Act, 1919; and a reference to Section one of the House Letting and Rating (Scotland) Act, 1911, shall be substituted for a reference to Section three of the Poor Rate Assessment and Collection Act, 1869:
  2. (c) Sub-section (5) of the Section of this Act relating to permitted increases in rent shall not apply:
  3. (d) Nothing in the law relating to tacit relocation shall prevent the landlord of a dwelling-house to which the Acts repealed by this Act applied from obtaining any increase of rent to which he would otherwise be entitled under the provisions of this Act.

(2) This Act shall apply to Ireland subject to the following modifications:—

  1. (a) A reference to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland shall be substituted for the reference to the Lord Chancellor:
  2. (b) A reference to Section fifteen of the Summary Jurisdiction (Ireland) Act, 1851, shall be substituted for the reference to Section one of the small Tenements Recovery Act, 1838; and a reference to the Agricultural Wages Board for Ireland shall be substituted for the reference to the county agricultural committee:
  3. (c) The expression "mortgage" includes a charge by registered disposition under the Local Registration of Title (Ireland) Act, 1891:
  4. (d) The expression "rateable value" means the annual rateable value under the Irish Valuation Acts: Provided that where part of a house let as a separate dwelling is not separately valued under those Acts, the Commissioner of Valuation and Boundary Surveyor may on the application of the landlord or tenant make such apportionment of the 885 rateable value of the whole house as seems just, and his decision as to the amount to be apportioned to the part of the house shall be final and conclusive, and that amount shall be taken to be the rateable value of the part of the house for the purposes of this Act but not further or otherwise:
  5. (c) The medical officer of health of a dispensary district shall be substituted for the sanitary authority under Section two of this Act and the issue of certificates and the payment of fees in connection with applications by tenants under the said Section shall be subject to regulations to be made by the Local Government Board for Ireland:

Lords Amendments:

In Sub-section (1, a), leave out th e words "Ministry of Agriculture" ["shall be substituted for the Ministry of Agriculture"], and insert instead thereof the words "Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries."

Leave out the word "twenty-fifth" ["twenty-fifth day of June"], and insert instead thereof the word "twenty-fourth."

After the word "diligence" ["as reference to doing diligence"] insert the words" the reference to the President of the Surveyors' Institution shall be construed as a reference to the Chairman of the Scottish Committee of the Surveyors' Institution."

Agreed to.

Lords Amendment:

In Sub-section (1) leave out paragraph (c), and insert instead thereof a new paragraph— (c) Paragraph (d) of Sub-section (1) of the Section of this Act relating to application and interpretation shall not apply.

Read a Second time.

The LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. Morison)

I beg to move, "That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment."

Colonel WEDGWOOD

What does this mean? Can we have an explanation of the Amendment?

Mr. MORISON

It is a purely formal alteration that arises from altering the Sections of that Statute.

Lords Amendment:

In Sub-section (1) leave out paragraph, (d), and insert instead thereof a new paragraph— (d) Where any dwelling-house, to which the Acts repealed by this Act applied, is subject to a right of tenancy arising from a yearly contract or from tacit relocation, and ending at Whit Sunday, nineteen hundred and twenty-one, the year ending at the said term of Whit Sunday shall be deemed to be a period during which, but for this Act, the landlord would be entitled to obtain possession of such dwelling-house.

Read a Second time.

Mr. MORISON

I beg to move, "That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment."

Perhaps I should say a word of explanation about this Amendment. Though put in the Bill in another place, it is really carrying out an Amendment which ought to have been inserted in the House of Commons. The words in this Amendment, were those which were originally in an Amendment proposed by my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, which we intended to accept.

Colonel WEDGWOOD

Which Member for Glasgow?

Mr. MORISON

The Member for Tradeston (Major Henderson). The sense of the Amendment is simply to put landlords who have made a bargain with their tenant in, say, February of last year, in the same position that they would have been put in if the bargain had not been made. A bargain made in February could only have been made under the Acts of Parliament in existence then, and as this Bill repeals those Acts it is only fair the landlord should be placed in a similar position.

Lords Amendment:

In Sub-section (2, (b) leave out the words "and a reference to the Agricultural Wages Board for Ireland shall be substituted for the reference to the County Agricultural Committee."

Agreed to.

Lords Amendment: In Sub-section (2, c), after "1891," insert the words and any notice of the apportionment of the principal money secured by a mortgage, if and when the notice becomes operative under this Act, and the award of any arbitrator with reference to any such apportionment may be registered under the enact- ments relative to the registration of deeds or titles as the case requires.

Read a Second time.

The SOLICITOR-GENERAL for IRELAND (Mr. D. M. Wilson)

I beg to move, "That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment."

This is according to Clause 12, which deals with cases where a mortgage covers premises which includes dwelling-houses and which amounts to a tenth of the value. This deals with an award made by an arbitrator appointed by the chairman of the Surveyors' Institution. It will be necessary to register the award.

Lords Amendments:

At end of Sub-section (2, d) insert new paragraphs. (e)The following paragraph shall be substituted for paragraph (ii)of Subsection (1)of Section five of this Act: (ii)Where the court is satisfied that the dwelling-house is required by the landlord for the occupation of a person engaged on work necessary for the proper working of an agricultural holding; or (f)The following Sub-section shall be substituted for Sub-section (9)of Section twelve of this Act: () This Act shall not apply to a dwelling-house erected after, or in course of erection on, the second day of April, nineteen hundred and nineteen, or to any dwelling-house which has been since that date or was at that date being bonâ fide reconstructed by way of conversion into two or more separate and self-contained flats or tenements; but the rateable value of any such dwelling-house to which this Act would have applied if it had been erected or so reconstructed before the said date shall be ascertained as though the rent for the purposes of Section eleven of the Valuation (Ireland) Act, 1852, were the rent for which a similar dwelling-house might have been reasonably expected to let on the third day of August, nineteen hundred and fourteen, the probable average annual cost of repairs, insurance, and other expenses (if any) necessary to maintain the dwelling-house in its actual state and all rates, taxes, and public charges, if any (except tithe rent-charge) being paid by the tenant.

In Sub-section (2, e), leave out the words "under Section two of this Act," and insert instead thereof the words "in Section two of this Act and in the First Schedule thereto."

Agreed to.