§ Amendments reported (according to Order).
§ Clause 7:
§ Settlement of terms of statutory tenancy
§
(2) A landlord's notice proposing a statutory tenancy and anything done in pursuance thereof shall cease to have effect if by the beginning of the period of two months ending with the date of termination specified in the notice any of the following matters, that is to say,—
(a) what premises are to constitute the dwelling-house;
has not been agreed between the landlord and the tenant and no application has been made by the beginning of the said period of two months for the determination by the court of such of those matters as have not been agreed:
§ Provided that this subsection shall not have effect if at the end of the period of two months after the service of the landlord's notice the qualifying condition was not fulfilled as respects the tenancy unless the tenant has elected to retain possession.
§
THE LORD CHANCELLOR (LORD SIMONDS) moved, in subsection (2) (c), to omit the final "and" and to insert:
(d) whether initial repairs to be so carried out are to be carried out by the landlord or by the tenant, or which of them are to be carried out by the landlord and which by the tenant; and
§ The noble and learned Lord said: My Lords, there are a number of Amendments to this Bill which your Lordships are to consider. The first and second stand in my name as do fifteen more, all relating to the same subject. These Amendments all arise out of a suggestion for which I am indebted to the noble Lord, Lord Silkin. The Bill as drafted enables the landlord and the tenant, when a long lease is terminated, what are in the Bill defined as certain "initial repairs," They may agree to them and also agree as to who is to do them; but the Bill as drawn provided that, if they did not agree, it lay with the landlord to do the repairs. The tenant had no right 1147 to insist on doing them for himself nor any right to go to court and ask that the court should declare that his should be the right to do them. The noble Lord, Lord Silkin suggested that, in certain circumstances, that was not fair to the tenant; and he suggested that that position might be overcome if the tenant was given the right which the landlord had, to go to the court and ask the court to say that he—the tenant—should do those repairs. We have given much consideration to the noble Lord's suggestion and have agreed that it is a good one. I have accordingly put down a number of Amendments which carry out that suggestion. I hope the noble Lord will be satisfied that they do achieve that.
§
I have gone a little further, because whereas the suggestion was in regard to the repairs in toto—that they should all be done by the tenant or all be done by the landlord—it appeared to me that it might well be that some part of them could better be done by the landlord and some part of them could better be done by the tenant. Therefore, it will be open to the court to declare either that the landlord shall do the whole or the tenant shall do the whole or that they shall be done some by one and some by the other. In order to carry out that proposal a very substantial number of Amendments have been put down, but I think it will be sufficient if I put formally to your Lordships the first Amendment, which provides that Clause 7 shall be amended and a new paragraph—paragraph (d)—inserted. That paragraph is in these terms:
whether initial repairs to be so carried out are to be carried out by the landlord or by the tenant, or which of them are to be carried out by the landlord and which by the tenant; and".
I think I need say no more about that Amendment. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 6, line 37, leave out ("and") and insert the said new paragraph.—(The Lord Chancellor.)
§ 3.32 p.m.
§ LORD SILKINI very much appreciate the fact that the Government have seen fit to accept the proposal which I made during the Committee stage. I am sure it is an improvement in the Bill and I am grateful to the noble and learned Lord who sits on the Woolsack for having gone further even than I had suggested. 1148 A salutary thought occurs to me. It appeared to me, in my innocence, that this could be achieved by one Amendment; in fact, it has been found necessary to amend this Bill in, I think, sixteen different places to achieve this very simple object. Next time we are criticised for the language of our Amendments, or for their inadequacy—and I expect this may happen on more than one occasion in future—I should like to refer to this Bill to illustrate the extreme difficulty which any ordinary Member of this House has in drafting Amendments. Here I genuinely thought was a very simple Amendment, but to make it we find requires a great deal of amendment to the Bill. However, I am very grateful indeed for the trouble that has been taken, and I am glad to say that these various Amendments entirely carry out what I had in mind.
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLORMy Lords, I think it may well be for the convenience of the House if the noble Lord, Lord Silkin, who is specially interested in this matter, will follow me and if I take all the Amendments on page 1 of the Marshalled List, except No. 3, which deals with a separate matter. I beg to move together Amendments Nos. 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13.
§ Amendments moved—
§ Clause 7
§ Page 7, line 3, leave out ("d") and insert ("e").
§ Clause 8
§ Page 7, line 41, leave out ("the landlord shall carry out") and insert ("the terms mentioned in subsection (1) of the last foregoing section shall include the carrying out of")
§ Page 8, line 1, at end insert ("and as respects which it has been agreed or determined as aforesaid that they are to be carried out by the landlord")
§ Page 8, line 11, leave out subsection (3)
§ Page 8, line 30, at end insert ("in so far as they are to be carried out by the landlord;")
§ Page 8, line 40, leave out ("or tenant's initial repairs")
§ Page 8, line 42, after ("landlord") insert ("or the tenant").
§ Clause 9
§
Page 9, line 11, at end insert—
("(3) Notwithstanding anything in subsection (1) of section seven of this Act, the court
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shall not have power to determine that any initial repairs shall be carried out by the tenant except with his consent")
§ Page 9, line 17, leave out ("by the landlord ")
§ Page 9, line 28, leave out ("by the land-lord")
§ Page 9, line 40, leave out subsection (5).—(The Lord Chancellor.)
§ On Question, Amendments agreed to.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLORMy Lords, if I may—and I hope it is not inconvenient to your Lordships—I will come now to the Amendments to the Second and Fifth Schedules, Amendments Nos. 32, 33, 34 and 35, which still relate to the same leading Amendment. I ought to mention them specially for this reason: that they contain—at any rate, Amendment No. 32 contains—something to which I ought to call your Lordships' attention, though I think you will have no difficulty in agreeing to it. Amendment No. 32 provides for an Amendment of the Second Schedule, and it has this aim. Where, by virtue of an agreement between a landlord and tenant, or as the result of a determination by the court, obligation to do certain repairs falls upon the tenant, then it is thought right that if he fails to perform that obligation that should be a ground for determining the tenancy. Obviously, there is no other sanction. The tenant says: "Here are repairs to be done; I will do them," and he invites the court to say that he shall do them. The court says that he shall, and then if he does not do them, clearly that is a breach of his obligation and it ought to give rise to determination of the tenancy if the landlord thinks fit. I do not think that is an unreasonable thing to provide. I beg to move Amendments Nos. 32, 33, 34 and 35 together.
§ Amendments moved—