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Lords Amendment: No. 10, in page 54, line 27, at end insert:
( ) Where a registration is by virtue of this section a provisional registration, the reference in section 40(4)(b) of the Act of 1971 to the date on which the registration of rent took effect shall be construed as a reference to the date of the provisional registration.
§ Mr. YoungerI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
The purpose of the Amendment is to correct a drafting omission in the Clause, which arises, incidentally, from the application under Clause 61(2) of Section 40 of the Rent (Scotland) Act, 1971, to that Clause.
Section 40(3) of the 1971 Act provides that where a rent for a dwelling house has been registered no application by the landlord or the tenant alone for the registration of a different rent can be entertained, except on certain limited grounds, before the expiry of three years from the date upon which the registration of a rent took effect.
Clause 61(3) provides that, subject to Clause 64, the registration of a rent for a housing association tenancy takes effect on the date of registration. But where the registration is, by vrtue of Clause 64, provisional—that is to say, where the rent limit imediately before registration exceeds the registered rent and the Secretary of State has directed a special rent limit—the registration cannot be said to have taken effect and there is, therefore, no date as from whch the period of three years could run. Although it was intended that the right to apply for registration of a different rent should be available where the existing registration was only provisional, there is at present no provision which achieves this in such a case.
1843 The Amendment provides that the reference in Section 40(4)(b) of the 1971 Act to the date on which registration of the rent took effect is to be construed as a reference to the date of the provisional registration. It therefore ensures that an application for the registration of a different rent can be made either by the landlord or tenant after the expiry of the three years from the date of the provisional registration, or before the expiry of that period, on the limited grounds of a change in the circumstances.
Without the Amendment the period of three years would have no start in these cases, and there would consequently be some risk of real uncertainty as to the right of an association to apply for a new registration after the lapse of such a period. The Amendment is therefore needed for the avoidance of doubt which could lead to uncertainty in a limited number of cases.
§ Question put and agreed to.