INTERPRETATION (Hansard, 14 July 1995)

§ Mr. Thurnham
I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.

§ Mr. Deputy Speaker
With this, it will be convenient to discuss also Lords amendments Nos. 76 to 78 and 80 to 84.

§ Mr. Thurnham
Again, these amendments are technical and in the main consequential on changes made earlier in the Bill. They amend clause 19 of the Bill as it left this House, which sets out definitions and provisions for interpretation of the Bill as a whole. A number of them fall to be revised and some additional ones are added.
1267 Lords amendment No. 37 inserts a general provision which qualifies the entire list of definitions so that they do not apply if the context otherwise requires. That enables the definitions to be simpler and clearer.
Lords amendment No. 76 clarifies the term "collateral agreement", which has an important place in the amendments which provide the framework for transmission of covenants to give effect to the Law Commission's recommendations. In particular, the amendment makes it clear that a collateral agreement may be entered into after the creation of the tenancy and need not be contemporaneous with it.
Lords amendment No. 77 makes it clear that the term "covenant" is to encompass matters contained in collateral agreements, which is in accordance with the Law Commission scheme.
Lords amendment No. 78 provides, for the avoidance of doubt, a definition of "landlord" and "tenant" for the purposes of the whole Bill. Lords amendment No. 80 restores wording which was originally recommended by the Law Commission that had been excluded from the Bill as it left this House. The reinserted wording excludes a mortgage term from the definition of tenancy for the purposes of the Bill. That is because it remains possible for there to be a mortgage by demise, and because it is inappropriate for there to be any question of the Bill's provisions applying to any such mortgage.
Lords amendments Nos. 81 and 82 deal with covenants to pay money such as a service charge in cases in which only part of a person's interest is assigned. A money covenant will not generally be attributable to one part or another of the property, so that it will be necessary for the assignor and assignee to agree an apportionment of liability. However, there are exceptional circumstances in which such a covenant is specifically attributable so that apportionment is not necessary. These are defined in subsection 3 of clause 19, which becomes clause 27 as now amended. The amendments provide new wording to make it clearer that subsection 3 deals with an exception and to make the application of the exception clearer.
Lords amendment No. 83 extends the definition of landlord and tenant for the purposes of the Bill to put beyond doubt a point which emerged during revision of the Bill and consideration of clause 10. It covers the possibility of joint landlords or tenants and makes it clear that any reference to the landlord or tenant means all those who jointly constitute the landlord or tenant, as the case may be. Clause 10 was intended to cover persons who had failed to secure release, their assignees and the like. It was not intended to cover joint tenants or landlords. The amendment ensures that clause 10 will, as intended, have no application as between joint tenants or landlords.
Lords amendment No. 84 covers certain cases such as sale via mortgagee, where the landlord's or tenant's interest changes hands, but does not do so by the landlord's or tenant's action or automatically by operation of law. Such a transfer is to be treated as an assignment by the landlord or tenant as appropriate, so that the assignor will be released and the assignee bound and so forth in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Act.

Mr. John M. Taylor
As my hon. Friend said, this group of amendments is technical, but I am grateful to 1268 him for his explanation and do not think that I can add anything. Once again, I commend the amendments to the House.