§ Lords amendment: No. 12, in page 10, line 8, after "12" insert "and section 15(3A)"
§ Mr. StanleyI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.
§ Mr. StanleyThese amendments revise the provision in the Bill for a tenant whose mortgage entitlement is insufficient to enable him to exercise his right to buy at once and to be able to deposit £100 with his landlord and have the option to defer completion for two years.
These amendments enable the tenant to claim his right to defer completion of 607 his purchase by depositing £100 with his landlord without having to wait for a completion notice. That was the previous structure of the Bill. The purchaser will be warned of the right to deferred completion when he receives notice of the purchase price under clause 10. That is provided for in amendment No. 12. The notice of mortgage entitlement under clause 12 will also advise him of his right to deferred completion and enclose a form for claiming it, as provided in amendment No. 14.
Where appropriate, the tenant will be able to claim deferred completion within three months of the landlord's notice under clause 12(4), which informs the tenant of the landlord's calculation of his mortgage entitlement, or within a longer period if the landlord or county court considers that there are reasonable grounds for extending the period.
The amendments also cover the requirement in deferred completion for the tenant to complete his purchase within two years of the service of his notice claiming to exercise the right to buy. Amendment No. 25 provides that, where a tenant has indicated his willingness to proceed with the sale by requiring the landlord to reassess his mortgage entitlement within two years but the sale has not been completed within that period, the landlord may, where there are reasonable grounds for doing so, extend the period for completion at the original price.
This may be desirable where, for instance, there had been some delay over processing the revised mortgage application. If there are reasonable grounds for the landlord to act in such a way, but he fails to do so, the county court may extend the period by order.
Amendment No. 20 incorporates an Opposition amendment to clause 15. It makes it entirely clear that the right to defer completion is open only to those tenants whose mortgage entitlement is insufficient to enable them to buy outright.
§ Mr. KaufmanI should have wished to oppose vigorously this group of amendments had it not been for two matters. The first was the Minister's last sentence, in which he made it clear that one of the amendments was acceptable to the 608 Opposition. Therefore, it would be somewhat inconsistent to oppose a group that included an amendment that I support, and inconsistency is alien to my nature.
Secondly, we wish to concentrate the debate on the £100 option on amendment No. 23. Since we are proceeding under the guillotine, I do not wish to take up more time on that matter. However, we do not like the way that the Government seem in some circumstances to be extending this option even beyond the two-year period and in certain circumstances giving the court the right to do so.
We shall not vote against the amendment, but I make it clear that that is due to the shortage of time.
§ Question put and agreed to