HC Deb 05 August 1941 vol 373 cc1917-20

Lords Amendment: In page 2, line 5, at the end, insert "as is."

The Attorney-General (Sir Donald Somervell)

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

In moving this Amendment perhaps I might have leave to deal also with the first seven Amendments, down to the Amendment in line 38 on page 2. They are all drafting Amendments, to make it clear that the certificate refers to the condition on the date when the house was examined and a certificate given, and not the date of proceedings in which it may be produced.

Mr. Speaker

If it suits the convenience of the House, I propose to put these Amendments in blocks, a page at a time. If any hon. Member wishes to raise a question upon an Amendment on any particular page, of course he can do so.

Mr. Garro Jones (Aberdeen, North)

Before you do that, may I say with respect, Mr. Speaker, that so far as we on this side are concerned that course will have our approval? It seems to me that the Amendments are not even drafting Amendments in all respects. Some of them appear to be almost on the borderline of grammatical Amendments, and I am sure that neither the House nor the draftsmen will take umbrage at that.

Question, "That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment," put, and agreed to.

Subsequent Lords Amendments to page 13, line 20, agreed to.

Lords' Amendment: In page 14, line 5, at the end, insert new Clause:

(Apportionment of rent in case of war damage to leased premises.)

Where—

  1. (a). any lease is deemed to have been surrendered by virtue of section eight of the principal Act (which relates to the effect of a notice of disclaimer); or
  2. (b). the rent payable under any lease ceases to be payable for any period by virtue of section ten or section eleven of the principal Act (which relate to the effect of a notice of retention and a notice to avoid disclaimer respectively), or, in the case of a short tenancy to which section one of this Act applies, by virtue of that section;
the rent payable in respect of the period during which the surrender takes effect or the rent ceases to be payable as aforesaid shall be apportionable, whether the rent under the lease is payable in advance or otherwise, and any rent paid by the tenant in respect of that period in excess of the amount apportionable to the part of the period preceding the date on which the surrender takes effect or the rent ceases to be payable, as the case may be, shall be recoverable by him.

Motion made, and Question proposed, "That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment."

Mr. Garro Jones

Perhaps the Attorney-General would like to give the House an explanation of the new Clause, which seems to require it.

The Attorney-General

During the Committee stage of the Bill, an hon. Member raised the question of rent payable in advance. Under the principal Act, the courts have held that, in the case where a notice of retention is served, rent payable in advance is apportioned as from the date when the notice of retention is served; but where notice of disclaimer is served, because of the words used in the general principles of landlord and tenant law, rent paid or payable in advance is not apportioned. The courts also said in one of the cases that they did not think that the words dealing with the notices of retention were particularly clear. We therefore propose a new Clause to meet this point, and it covers all forms of notice. It makes it clear that rent paid or payable in advance is apportionable if one or other of those notices is served and the rent is payable in respect of the period which the rent paid or payable in advance covers. That is a sensible principle, and it is, I believe, the principle upon which most landlords and tenants have probably been acting, irrespective of whether the notice is of one kind or another. The Clause is put forward in the hope of improving the Bill.

Question, "That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment," put, and agreed to.

The remaining Orders were read, and postponed.

It being after the hour appointed for the Adjournment of the House, Mr. SPEAKER adjourned the House, without Question put, pursuant to the Standing Order.