5.

4. Lessee may acquire reversions by purchase. Power to acquire reversions to be exercised concurrently.

6.

7.

Notice by lessee of intention to acquire reversions. Production of deeds relating to the reversions and of the lease of the demised premises.

8. Lessee may purchase reversions by agreement. 9. Tribunal for determining differences in respect of enfranchisement of leaseholds.

10. Application to Arbitrator.

11. Arbitrator to fix a day for hearing, and to send notices to parties.

12. Assessment of purchase money.

13. Payment of purchase money and issue of certificate of purchase.

14. Distribution of purchase money.

15. Conveyance where title cannot be expeditiously

proved.

16. Observance of byelaws and safeguarding adjoining

owners.

17. Provision for cases of disability.

18. Trustees may purchase under certain conditions. Provision in cases of irregularities.

19.

21. Cost in case of default of lessee or of unfounded

claim.

22. Limitation in certain cases of right to apply to court. 23. Appeals.

24. Public Trustee to receive deposits and purchase money and hold to order of arbitrator. Forms in schedule.

25.

26. Service of notices.

SCHEDULE.

A

BILL

ΤΟ

Provide for the Enfranchisement of Leaseholds.

WHEREAS it is expedient to amend the law so

as to give to certain leaseholders in England and Wales the power to acquire the freehold reversion expectant on the determination of their leases and any 5 intermediate interests in such property.

Be it therefore enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, 10 as follows:

A.D. 1923.

1 This Act may be cited for all purposes as the Short title. Leaseholds Enfranchisement (England and Wales) Act,

1923.

2. This Act shall come into operation on the first Commence15 day of October, one thousand nine hundred and twenty- ment of Act. three, which date is hereinafter referred to as the com

mencement of this Act, and shall not apply to Scotland or Ireland.

3. In this Act the following words and expressions Interpreta20 shall have the interpretations and meanings in this tion of section assigned to them respectively, unless there be terms. something in the subject or context repugnant to such construction (that is to say) :

25

"Lease " means a lease, under-lease, assignment
operating as a lease or under-lease, or an agree-
ment for such lease, under-lease, or assignment,
unexpired at the time of giving notice of an
intention to exercise the powers conferred by
this Act;

A.D. 1923.

"Life lease" means a lease or an agreement for a
lease for years determinable on the expiration
of a life or lives, or a grant or an agreement for
a grant for a life or lives;

"Lessee" includes any person entitled to the equity 5
of redemption in a lease subject to a mortgage,
and, where the demised premises are comprised
in or affected by a settlement, includes the
tenant for life or the person having the powers
of a tenant for life under such settlement or 10
in respect of such settled land;

"Settlement," "settled land" and "tenant for
life" have the same meanings respectively as
in the Settled Land Act, 1882 and 1884, as
amended by subsequent Acts;

15

"Freeholder " means any person entitled to the
freehold reversion expectant on the determina-
tion of a lease or superior or intermediate lease, or
if such freehold reversion shall be settled land, or
comprised in or affected by any settlement, 20
then the tenant for life or person entitled to
exercise the powers of a tenant for life in respect
of such settled land or under such settlement;
"Premises" and "demised premises" include any
messuage, dwelling-house, shop, cottage, or 25
other building, and any buildings, yard, garden,
pleasure ground, or other piece of land used in
connexion therewith, held in pursuance of a
lease as defined by this Act, so that such
buildings, yard, garden, pleasure ground, or 30
other piece of land do not exceed five acres in
extent, except in case of land covered by works
or accommodation lands in connexion therewith;
"Local authority" means the mayor, aldermen,
and council of any city or municipal borough, 35
the vestries and district boards in the metropolis
and elsewhere, the local board having authority
in any urban or rural district for the enforcement
of Acts relating to buildings, sanitary regula.
tions, or the public health;

66

Person

" includes a body of persons corporate or unincorporate;

40

5

"Prescribed" means prescribed by rules made in A.D. 1923. pursuance of this Act;

"Reversions" include "remainders";

reversions

4. (1) From and after the commencement of this Lessee may Act, every lessee to whom this Act applies shall have as acquire incident to and inseparable from his interest in any by purchase. lease granted before or after the commencement of this Act, and not being a lease at rack rental at the date 10 of the giving of the notice hereafter mentioned, the right (notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary) to acquire the reversion expectant or consequent upon the determination of the said lease or life lease, the reversions of any superior or intermediate lease or 15 interest, and the freehold reversion in the demised

premises in the manner hereinafter provided; but a lessee shall not be entitled to exercise such right in respect of part only of the premises demised by such lease, except where such part is the subject of a separate 20 tenancy.

(2) When the interest of a lessee in a lease is subject to an incumbrance, then, on the purchase by such lessee of such lease or of the freehold reversion expectant or consequent on the determination thereof, the lease 25 or reversion so purchased shall vest in such incumbrancer in the same manner as if such lease or reversion had been actually conveyed to him by the instrument creating such incumbrance.

(3) The right to acquire such reversions as aforesaid 30 shall be incapable of being suspended, modified, released, or extinguished.

(4) The powers herein contained shall be applicable to life leases as defined by this Act, and any person entitled to any such leases shall be and is hereby 35 empowered to acquire all the reversions in the demised premises by purchase in the manner and under the limitations and conditions in this Act provided.

5. Where the demised premises are comprised in Power to an under-lease, the powers hereby conferred on the acquire 40 lessee to acquire the reversions expectant upon the reversions to term granted by such under-lease and by any superior or intermediate lease shall be exercised concurrently rently.

be exercised

concur