POWER OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES TO IMPOSE GRANT CONDITIONS (Hansard, 25 June 1974)

§ Mr. Kaufman

I beg to move Amendment No. 64, in page 62, line 46, leave out from 'of' to end of line 47 and insert 'that period'.

During the earlier stages of drafting Clause 67, which sets out further conditions which may be attached to grant approvals to applicants who have given a certificate of availability for letting, it was intended that the periods set out in subsection (2)(d) of the Clause, within which matters were to be referred to the rent officer or the rent tribunal, as appropriate, should run from the certified date. The certified date is the date on which the improved dwelling is certified by the local authority as fit for occupation after completion of the relevant works, as provided in Clause 68(6).

It was later decided, however, to adopt instead the relevant date for this purpose as defined in subsection (4), that is, the day on which the dwelling is first let on a regulated tenancy or a Part VI contract. But in making this change, it was overlooked that the periods within which action had to be taken, as provided in Clause 67(2)(d), would no longer be entirely appropriate.

As originally conceived—that is, linking the condition to the certified date—the landlord letting on a regulated tenancy—that is, letting unfurnished—would be able to let more quickly than the landlord letting on a Part VI contract who would under the existing Rent Acts, disregarding their impending amendment by the Rent Bill now under consideration in 1395 another place, have to furnish the dwelling before a tenant could move in. Thus the clause as drafted allows the potential furnished lessor an extra 14 days within which registration must be sought.

Quite apart from the impending elimination of the distinction between furnished and unfurnished tenancies under the Rent Bill, the fact that the clause now provides that the period within which registration must be sought shall run from the day on which the letting actually begins eliminates any need for different periods to be available for Part VI or regulated lettings. The amendment eliminates this unnecessary distinction. It requires the landlord letting under a Part VI contract to apply for a rent registration within the same period as that within which a landlord letting under a regulated tenancy must apply, that is, 14 days.