CLAUSE 1.—(Modification of obligations under repairing covenants in respect of damage occurring during a requisition of leaseholds.) (Hansard, 4 February 1944)

§ The Solicitor-General (Major Sir David Maxwell Fyfe)

I beg to move, in page 1, line 11, to leave out "where," and to insert: if the lease determines while possession of the land is so retained, or if. This Amendment deals with the position when the lease in question ends, during the requisitioning of the land. There may be circumstances arising between the end of the lease and the end of the requisitioning period, which prevent the landlord recovering compensation, and still make it unfair that he should recover under the covenant against the tenant. An obvious example is where the Crown, as requisitioning authority, instead of paying the landlord the compensation does the repairs which were necessary to the land. It would be quite unfair, in those circum- 1576 stances, that the landlord should have a right against his tenant, but that right would crystallise at the end of the period of the lease. We, therefore, suggest by this Amendment that the right under the Covenant should be taken away in these circumstances, and we believe this to be fair because the covenantor at any rate can never get the compensation.