HC Deb 08 May 1905 vol 145 cc1139-40
MR. JOSEPH DEVLIN

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if his attention has been called to cases in which landlords about to sell their estates have compelled non-judicial tenants to sign agreements for judicial rents with the object of bringing them within the zones and evading inspection for value, and also provisional agreements for purchase, and that pressure for arrears of rent has been applied for this purpose; and, if so, have the Commissioners been instructed to get holdings to which such agreements relate inspected for value and the price fixed without regard to any agreements which the tenants may have signed.

MR. WALTER LONG

No case has been brought under the notice of the Estates Commissioners in which a purchaser has alleged that he has been compelled to sign a judicial agreement under pressure for arrears of rent. The 10th Section of the Act of 1885 provides a remedy in any such case. That section gives the Land Commission equitable powers, on the principles acted upon by the Court of Chancery, to vary or rescind any agreement which may have been obtained by duress.