HC Deb 27 April 1888 vol 325 cc757-8
MR. M'CARTAN (Down, S.)

asked Mr. Solicitor General for Ireland, Whether it is a fact that tenants who have applied to have fair rents fixed, and who have been subsequently served with notices of eviction, under the 7th section of "The Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1887," before the hearing of their fair rent applications, are thereby deprived of their right to have fair rents fixed, unless the amount of rent and law costs due in each case has been previously paid; whether every present tenant whose gale day was the 1st of November last, and who had his fair rent application served before that day, is entitled to the benefit of the reduced rent on the rent accruing from the 1st of May last, and whether he is, nevertheless, compelled by "The Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1887," to continue paying the old rent up to the time when his fair rent is fixed by the Sub-Commission; whether, at the expiration of six months from the service of this eviction notice, and without any actual eviction, the right of the tenant to have a fair rent fixed ceases, and the holding of the tenant then becomes the property of the landlord without any compensation to the tenant; and, whether, as the law now stands, the landlord may obtain an ejectment decree for the non-payment of one year of the old rent due at the 1st of May next, although the tenant is entitled to the benefit of the reduced rent for that period, but owing to the insufficient number of Sub-Commissioners he may not know for years what the fair rent is to be?

THE SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. MADDEN) (Dublin University)

The Question of the hon. and learned Member relates to abstract matters of law, and not to any particular case which has arisen. But I am ready to inform him that a tenant who has applied to have a fair rent fixed and who omits to avail himself of the right given to him of applying for a stay of ejectment proceedings then pending or subsequently instituted, and who allows those proceedings to culminate in an eviction notice, necessarily loses his right to have a fair rent fixed, inasmuch as he has allowed his tenancy to be determined. He can only re-instate himself in the position of tenant by redeeming his holding on payment of rent and costs. In answer to the second paragraph, it is hardly accurate to say that a tenant is compelled by the Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1887, to continue paying the old rent up to the time of fixing the judicial rent. The Act of 1887 gave to the tenant an advantage which he did not enjoy under the Act of 1881—namely, the antedating of the judicial rent as stated in the Question, with the consequential benefit conferred on the tenant of enforcing an account against the landlord in the event of the rent being reduced. In the interval between the application of the tenant and the adjudication of the Commissioners, the rent legally payable in respect of the holding remains unaltered, with the necessary result stated in the fourth paragraph of the Question. As to the third paragraph, I have to point out that the tenant's holding does not become the property of the landlord without compensation to the tenant, after the determination of his tenancy and the expiration of the period of six months allowed for redemption, inasmuch as the tenant still retains his right to compensation for improvements under the Act of 1870.

MR. M`CARTAN

You have not answered the last paragraph of the Question.

MR. MADDEN

I think I did answer the last paragraph. What I stated was that between the application and the actual adjudication the old rent necessarily remained unaltered, with the consequence correctly stated by the hon. Member in the fourth paragraph of the Question.

MR. M'CARTAN

Then I understand that the answer to my Question is, shortly, yes?

MR. MADDEN

So far, that is the answer shortly.