§ No agreement, whether verbal or written, for the let of a dwelling-house shall be binding if the same has been made more than one month prior to the date of entry to such dwelling-house.
§ Sir F. BANBURY moved to omit the Clause. The effect of it would be to hamper enterprise in business. The Clause had "two" in it when it came before the House, and that was struck out and "one" inserted in Committee. I should be content not to press this to a Division if the Lord-Advocate would give me any assurance that on any subsequent Amendment "two" would be accepted.
§ Motion, by leave, withdrawn.
§ Amendment made: After the word "a" ["of a dwelling-house"] to insert the word "small."—[Mr. Ure.]
1710§ Mr. URE moved to leave out the words "one month" ["more than one month"], and to insert the words "two months."
§ Mr. BARNESI regret that this Amendment has been put forward by the Lord Advocate, because the Committee gave this very full consideration, and adopted one month instead of two. The Committee thought one month was quite sufficient to enable the landlord and everybody else to look around and get things settled.
§ Sir HENRY CRAIKBefore we pass from this Clause, may I say that the Lord Advocate might give instructions to his draftsmen to make the rule intelligible to any reader. What has the time limit to do with "Time limit to missives"? We are always told we have nothing to do with these rulings. I did, as a matter of fact, call attention to this in Committee. It has not been put right. I hope the Lord Advocate will be able to tell us that he will be able to get his draftsman to make the Bill intelligible to the ordinary reader.
§ Amendment agreed to.