Leasehold Reform Act 1967

1 Tenants entitled to enfranchisement or extension.

(1) This Part of this Act shall have effect to confer on a tenant of a leasehold house, occupying the house as his residence, a right to acquire on fair terms the freehold or an extended lease of the house and premises where—

(a) his tenancy is a long tenancy at a low rent and the rateable value of the house and premises on the appropriate day is not (or was not) more than £200 or, if it is in Greater London, than £400 ; and

(b) at the relevant time (that is to say, at the time when he gives notice in accordance with this Act of his desire to have the freehold or to have an extended lease, as the case may be) he has been tenant of the house under a long tenancy at a low rent, and occupying it as his residence, for the last five years or for periods amounting to five years in the last ten years;

and to confer the like right in the other cases for which provision is made in this Part of this Act.

(2) In this Part of this Act references, in relation to any tenancy, to the tenant occupying a house as his residence shall be construed as applying where, but only where, the tenant is, in right of the tenancy, occupying it as his only or main residence (whether or not he uses it also for other purposes); but—

(a) references to a person occupying a house shall apply where he occupies it in part only ; and

(b) in determining in what right the tenant occupies, there shall be disregarded any mortgage term and any interest arising in favour of any person by his attorning tenant to a mortgagee or chargee.

(3) This Part of this Act shall not confer on the tenant of a house any right by reference to his occupation of it as his residence (but shall apply as if he were not so occupying it) at any time when—

(a) it is let to and occupied by him with other land or premises to which it is ancillary; or

(b) it is comprised in an agricultural holding within the meaning of the [1948 c. 63.] Agricultural Holdings Act 1948.

(4) In subsection (1)(a) above, " the appropriate day ", in relation to any house and premises, means the 23rd March 1965 or such later day as by virtue of section 43(3) of the [1965 c. 75.] Rent Act 1965 would be the appropriate day for purposes of that Act in relation to a dwelling house consisting of that house.