§ PROCEDURE FOR COMPLETION OF COMPULSORY PURCHASE UNDER ORDERS PROVIDING FOR EXPEDITED COMPLETION.
§ PART I.
§ Procedure for expedited completion.
§ 1.—(1) Except as provided by sub-paragraph (3) of this paragraph, when a purchasing order providing for expedited completion has come into operation the Lands Clauses Acts and the Acquisition of Land (Assessment of Compensation) Act, 1919, shall have effect as if a notice to treat (that is to say, such a notice as is mentioned in Section eighteen of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845) had been served on every person on whom the purchasing authority could under the terms of that section (and on the assumption of their requiring to purchase or take all the land as respects which this Schedule applies by virtue of the order, and of their having knowledge of all parties referred to in that section) have served such a notice.
§ (2) The date on which a notice to treat is to be deemed by virtue of the preceding subparagraph to have been served on any party in respect of any interest in land shall be the date on which the order is registered in the register of local land charges by the proper officer of the council mentioned in subsection 100 (2) of Section thirty-eight of the Town and Country Planning Act, 1947, in whose area that land is situated.
§ (3) Notwithstanding anything in sub-paragraph (1) of this paragraph, no notice to treat shall be deemed to be served on any person in respect of an interest being either—
- (a) a minor tenancy (that is to say a tenancy for a year from year to year or any less interest); or
- (b) a long tenancy which is about to expire (that is to say, a tenancy granted for an interest greater than a minor tenancy but having, at the date when apart from this provision notice to treat would be deemed by virtue of the said sub-paragraph (1) to be served on the owner of the tenancy, still to run only such period longer than a year as may be specified in the order for the purposes of the operation of this provision in relation to the land in which the tenancy subsists, the period which the tenancy has then still to run being ascertained on the assumption that the tenant will exercise any option to renew the tenancy, and will not exercise any option to determine the tenancy, then or thereafter available to him, and that the landlord will exercise any option to determine the tenancy then or thereafter available to him).
§ (4) The reference in sub-paragraph (1) of this paragraph to the Lands Clauses Acts and the Acquisition of Land (Assessment of Compensation) Act, 1919, is to those enactments as modified by the Second Schedule to the Acquisition of Land (Authorisation Procedure) Act, 1946, by the Fifth Schedule to this Act, and by paragraph 3 and Part II of this Schedule.
§ 2. The notice of the confirmation of an order authorising compulsory purchase required by the Acquisition of Land (Authorisation Procedure) Act, 1946, to be published shall, in the case of a purchase order providing for expedited completion, include a notification to the effect that every person entitled to claim compensation in respect of any of the land as respects which this Schedule applies by virtue of the order, or in respect of any interest in any such land, is invited to give information to the purchasing authority in such form as may be prescribed of his name and address and of the land and interest in question.
§ 3.—(1) At any time or from time to time after the coming into operation of a purchase order providing for expedited completion, but not earlier than such time as is mentioned in sub-paragraph (2) of this paragraph, the purchasing authority may execute, as respects an area consisting either of the whole or a part of the land as respects which this Schedule applies by virtue of the order, a declaration designating that area and stating—
- (a) their intention to enter on the land in the designated area and take possession thereof at the expiration of such period (not being less than fourteen days) as may be specified therein from the date on which the service of notices on occupiers required by sub-paragraph (3) of this paragraph is completed; and
- (b) that the land in the designated area, is to vest in the authority at the expiration of that period.
§ (2) The earliest time at which such a declaration may be executed shall be the expiration of two months from the date of first publication of the notice of confirmation of the order required by the Acquisition of Land (Authorisation Procedure) Act, 1946, to be published:
§ Provided that the order may provide for the substitution of a period longer or shorter than two months for the purpose of the operation of this sub-paragraph as respects any land, so however, that provision for the substitution of a shorter period shall not be so made in relation to any land unless the order as submitted or the draft of the order or the application therefor, as the case may be, made such provision in relation thereto.
§ (3) As soon as may be after executing such a declaration the purchasing authority shall serve upon every occupier of any of the land in the area designated thereby (other than any of the land therein in which a minor tenancy, or a long tenancy which is about to expire, is subsisting), and on every other person who has given information to the authority in relation to any of the land therein pursuant to such invitation as is mentioned in paragraph 2 of this Schedule, a notice describing that area and stating the effect of the declaration.
§ (4) At the expiration of the period specified in such a declaration from the date on which the service of notices on occupiers required by the last preceding sub-paragraph is completed (as to which date a certificate given by the purchasing authority shall be conclusive)—
- (a)there shall vest in the purchasing authority the right to enter on and take possession of the land in the area designated by the declaration or any of it without previous consent or compliance with Sections eighty-four to ninety of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845; and
- (b)the land in the area designated by the declaration shall vest in the purchasing authority as if the circumstances in which under that Act the promoters of an undertaking have powers to execute a deed poll for vesting in them lands or any estate or interest in lands, or for the extinguishment of, or of a portion of, any rent service, rent-charge, chief or other rent, payment or in-cumbrance, had arisen as regards all the said land and, subject to the next succeeding sub-paragraph, as regards all interests therein, and the authority had duly exercised those powers accordingly at the expiration of the said period;
§ (5) Notwithstanding anything in sub-paragraph (1) or (4) of this paragraph, the following provisions shall have effect as respects land in an area designated by a declaration made under sub-paragraph (1) of this para- 102 graph in which a minor tenancy, or a long tenancy which is about to expire, in subsisting, that is to say—
- (a)in the case of a minor tenancy, the right of entry conferred by sub-paragraph (4) of this paragraph shall not be exercisable and the vesting of the land in the authority shall be subject to the tenancy during its subsistence, but without prejudice to any power to require a tenant to give up possession exercisable by the purchasing authority by virtue of the Lands Clauses Acts;
- (b)in the case of a long tenancy which is about to expire, the right of entry conferred by sub-paragraph (4) of this paragraph shall not be exercisable unless or until the purchasing authority have served notice to treat in respect of the tenancy and they have thereafter served a notice upon every occupier of any of the land in which the tenancy subsists describing the land to which the notice relates and stating their intention to enter on and to take possession thereof at the expiration of such period (not being less than fourteen days) from the date on which the notice is served as may be therein specified, and that period has expired, and the vesting of the land in the authority shall be subject to the tenancy until the expiration of that period or the cesser of the tenancy, whichever first occurs.
§ (6) Every notice of the confirmation of a purchase order providing for expedited completion required by the Acquisition of Land (Authorisation Procedure) Act, 1946, to be published shall refer to the provisions as to entry and vesting contained in sub-paragraph (4) of this paragraph.
§ 4. Where the land as respects which this Schedule applies by virtue of a purchase order providing for expedited completion comprises part only of any house, building or manufactory, or of a park or garden belonging to a house, then if at any time after the coming into operation of the order and before the making of a declaration under the last preceding paragraph as respects the said part any person having an interest therein in respect of which a notice to treat would otherwise be deemed by virtue of this Schedule to have been served gives notice to the purchasing authority in that behalf, no notice to treat shall be deemed by virtue of this Schedule to have been served in respect of any interest in the said part, and as from the giving of the notice the order shall have effect in relation to the said part as if this Schedule had not been applied thereto.
§ 5.—(1)Where the compensation payable in respect of an interest which becomes vested in a purchasing authority by virtue of paragraph 3 of this Schedule, or the amount of any sum payable as a supplement thereto, is not finally ascertained at the time of such vesting, Section twelve of the Finance Act, 1895, which provides for the collection of stamp duty, where property is vested by way of sale by virtue of an Act, within three months from the date of vesting shall have effect, as respects the vesting of that interest, with the substitution for the reference 103 therein to the date of vesting of a reference to the date on which the compensation, together, if any sum is payable as a supplement thereto, with the amount of that sum, has become finally ascertained.
§ (2) Where after the vesting in a purchasing authority under paragraph 3 of this Schedule of any land a person retains possession of any document relating to the title to the land, he shall be deemed to have given to the authority an acknowledgment in writing of the right of the authority to production of that document and to delivery of copies thereof, and (except where he retains possession of the document as mortgagee or as trustee or otherwise in a fiduciary capacity) an undertaking for safe custody thereof, and Section sixty-four of the Law of Property Act, 1925, shall have effect accordingly, and on the basis that the acknowledgment and undertaking did not contain any such expression of contrary intention as is mentioned in that section.
§ PART II.
§ Adjustments where provision for expedited completion made.
§ 6.—(1)The time within which a question of disputed compensation arising out of an acquisition of an interest in land in respect of which a notice to treat is deemed to have been served by virtue of this Schedule may be referred to arbitration shall be the expiration of six years from the date at which the person claiming compensation or a person under whom he derives title first knew, or could reasonably be expected to have known, of the vesting of the interest by virtue of paragraph 3 of this Schedule.
§ (2)This paragraph shall be construed as one with Part I of the Limitation Act, 1939.
§ 7. The power conferred by subsection (2) of Section five of the Acquisition of Land (Assessment of Compensation) Act, 1919, or that subsection as applied by paragraph 3 of the Fourth Schedule to this Act, to withdraw a notice to treat shall, in the case of a notice to treat which is deemed to have been served by virtue of this Schedule, not be exercisable at any time after the vesting by virtue of paragraph 3 of this Schedule of the interest in respect of which the notice is deemed to have been served.
§ 8. In relation to a compulsory purchase authorised by a purchase order providing for expedited completion, being a purchase of an interest in respect of which a notice to treat is deemed to have been served by virtue of this Schedule, the following sections of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845, shall be excepted from the incorporation of that Act with the Acquisition of Land (Authorisation Procedure) Act, 1946, that is to say, Sections fifty-eight to sixty-two and sixty-four to sixty-seven (which relate to the mode of ascertaining compensation to absent parties), Section ninety-two (which relates to sales of parts of buildings) and Sections one hundred and twenty-four to one hundred and twenty-six (which relate to interests which have by mistake been omitted to be purchased).
§ 9.—(1) Where any of the land as respects which this Schedule applies by virtue of a 104 purchase order providing for expedited completion constitutes a part only of land charged with a rentcharge, the following provisions of this paragraph shall have effect.
§ (2) Any question as to the apportionment mentioned in Section one hundred and sixteen of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845, shall be referred and determined as mentioned in Section one of the Acquisition of Land (Assessment of Compensation) Act, 1919.
§ (3) Such portion of the rentcharge as may be apportioned under the said Section one hundred and sixteen to the land as respects which this Schedule applies by virtue of the order shall be treated as having been extinguished by virtue of paragraph 3 of this Schedule on the vesting of that land in the purchasing authority under that paragraph, and Sections one hundred and fifteen to one hundred and eighteen of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845, shall have effect as if the extinguishment had taken place under Section one hundred and seventeen thereof:
§ Provided that if the person entitled to the rentcharge and the owner of the land subject thereto enter into an agreement to that effect, the said Sections one hundred and fifteen to one hundred and eighteen shall have effect as if the person entitled to the rentcharge had released therefrom the land as respects which this Schedule applies by virtue of the order, on the condition mentioned in the said Section one hundred and sixteen, at the time of the vesting of that land in the purchasing authority under paragraph 3 of this Schedule, and in that case none of the rentcharge shall be treated as having been extinguished by virtue of that paragraph so far as regards the remaining part of the land charged therewith.
§ (4) In this paragraph references to a rentcharge include references to any such rent service, chief or other rent, or other payment or incumbrance as is mentioned in the words introductory to the said Sections one hundred and fifteen to one hundred and eighteen.
§ 10. Where any of the land as respects which this Schedule applies by virtue of a purchase order providing for expedited completion constitutes a part only of land comprised in a lease for a term of years unexpired, Section one hundred and nineteen of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845, shall have effect subject to the modification that for references therein to the time of the apportionment of rent therein mentioned there shall be substituted references to the time of the vesting in the purchasing authority of the leasehold interest in the first-mentioned land under paragraph 3 of this Schedule.
§ 11. Any person who in consequence of the vesting of any land in the authority by virtue of paragraph 3 of this Schedule is relieved from any liability, whether in respect of a rentcharge, rent under a lease, mortgage interest or any other matter, and who makes any payment as in satisfaction or part satisfaction of that liability shall, if he shows that when he made the payment he did not know of the facts which constitute the cause of his being so relieved or of someone or more of them, be entitled to recover the sum paid as money had and received to his use by the person to whom it was paid."
105§ The noble Lord said: This Schedule, in the interests of clarity, sets out those sections of the 1944 Act which are not repealed, and as they are amended by the Eighth Schedule. In his Second Reading speech, the noble and learned Viscount, the Lord Chancellor, promised to include such a Schedule. Words to be inserted by the Eighth Schedule are printed in heavy type in the Marshalled List, but will be printed in ordinary type in the Act after it has received your Lordships' assent. I hope, therefore, that this new Schedule will be accepted.
§ Amendment moved—
§ After the Tenth Schedule insert the said new Schedule.—(Lord Henderson.)
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ House resumed.