Land Compensation Act 1961

Section 10.

SECOND SCHEDULE Acquisition of Houses as Being Unfit for Human Habitation

1 (1) Nothing in this Act shall be construed as excluding the provisions of the Act of 1957 as to site value, but those provisions shall have effect in addition to the provisions of this Act.

(2) Subject to paragraph 3 of this Schedule, the compensation payable in respect of a compulsory acquisition in relation to which any of the said provisions as to site value apply (whether by virtue of the Act of 1957 or of an order under paragraph 2 of this Schedule) shall not in any event exceed the amount of the compensation which would have been payable in respect thereof if—

(a) none of those provisions had applied to the acquisition, and

(b) in a case where any of the relevant land is in an area which has been declared under Part III of the Act of 1957 to be a clearance area, or which constitutes a re-development area within the meaning of that Part of that Act, that area had not been declared to be a clearance area or did not constitute such a re-development area, as the case may be,

but in all other respects the acquisition had been effected in the circumstances in which it actually is effected.

2 (1) Where a compulsory acquisition is—

(a) an acquisition under Part IV of the Town and Country Planning Act, 1947. or

(b) an acquisition under section six of the Town Development Act. 1952, or

(c) an acquisition in pursuance of Part IV of the Town and Country Planning Act, 1959, or

(d) an acquisition of land within the area designated by an order under section one of the New Towns Act, 1946. as the site of a new town, or

(e) an acquisition by a development corporation or local highway authority or the Minister of Transport under the New Towns Act, 1946, or under any enactment as applied by any provision of that Act,

and the land in question comprises a house which, in the opinion of an appropriate local authority, is unfit for human habitation and not capable at reasonable expense of being rendered fit for human habitation, the following provisions of this paragraph shall apply in relation to the acquisition.

(2) The local authority may make and submit to the Minister an order in such form as may be prescribed, declaring the house to be in the state referred to in sub-paragraph (1) of this paragraph ; and if—

(a) that order is confirmed by the Minister, either before or concurrently with the confirmation of a compulsory purchase order for the acquisition of the land, or

(b) in a case where the acquisition is in pursuance of a notice to treat deemed to have been served in consequence of the service of a notice under section nineteen of the Town and Country Planning Act, 1947, or the provisions of that section as applied by or under any other enactment, or in consequence of the service of a notice under subsection (4) of section six of the New Towns Act, 1946, or under Part IV of the Town and Country Planning Act, 1959, the order is made before the date on which the notice to treat is deemed to have been served and is subsequently confirmed by the Minister,

the provisions of subsections (2) and (3) of section fifty-nine of the Act of 1957, and the provisions of sections sixty and sixty-one of that Act, and the Second Schedule thereto (which relate to certain payments in respect of houses purchased or demolished under that Act) shall apply as if the house had been purchased under section fifty-seven of that Act as being in the state referred to in sub-paragraph (1) of this paragraph, and as if any reference in those sections or in that Schedule to the local authority were a reference to the acquiring authority.

(3) Before submitting to the Minister an order under this paragraph 'the local authority by whom it was made shall serve on every owner, and (so far as it is reasonably practicable to ascertain such persons) on every mortgagee, of the land or any part thereof, a notice in such form as may be prescribed, stating the effect of the order and that it is about to be submitted to the Minister for confirmation, and specifying the time within which, and the manner in which, objection thereto can be made.

(4) If no objection is duly made by any of the persons on whom notices are required to be served, or if all the objections so made are withdrawn, the Minister may, if he thinks fit, confirm the order ; but in any other case he shall, before confirming the order, consider any objection not withdrawn, and shall, if either the person by whom the objection was made or the local authority so desires, afford to that person and the authority an opportunity of appearing before and being heard by a person appointed by the Minister for the purpose.

(5) Section four of the Act of 1957 (which specifies matters to be taken into account in determining whether a house is unfit) and sections one hundred and fifty-nine and one hundred and sixty of that Act (which relate to entry on land for the purposes of that Act) shall apply for the purposes of this paragraph as they apply for the purposes of that Act.

(6) In this paragraph—

• " appropriate local authority " means a local authority who, in relation to the area in which the land in question is situate, are a local authority for the purposes of the provisions of Part III of the Act of 1957 relating to clearance areas ;

• " owner ", in relation to any land, means a person, other than a mortgagee not in possession, who is for the time being entitled to dispose of the (fee simple of the land, whether in possession or in reversion, and includes also a person holding or entitled to the .rents and profits of the land under a lease or agreement the unexpired term Whereof exceeds three years ; and

• " prescribed " means prescribed by regulations made under section one hundred and seventy-eight of the Act of 1957.

3 (1) Where in relation to a compulsory acquisition any of the provisions of the Act of 1957 as to site value apply (whether by virtue of that Act or of an order under paragraph 2 of this Schedule) and—

(a) the relevant land consists of or includes the whole or part of a house (in this paragraph referred to as " the relevant house ") and, on the date of the making of the compulsory purchase order in pursuance of which the acquisition is effected, the person then entitled to the relevant interest was, in right of that interest, in occupation of the relevant house or part thereof as a private dwelling, and

(b) that person either continues, on the date of service of the notice to treat, to be entitled to the relevant interest, or, if he has died before that date, continued to be entitled to that interest immediately before his death,

the following provisions of this paragraph shall apply in relation to the acquisition; and in those provisions " the dwelling " means so much of the relevant house as the said person occupied as aforesaid.

(2) The amount of the compensation payable in respect of the acquisition of the relevant interest shall not in any event be less than the gross value of the dwelling ; but for the purposes of this sub-paragraph the amount of the compensation so payable shall be deemed to include—

(a) the amount (if any) of any payment under section thirty or section sixty of the Act of 1957, in so far as it falls to be made to the person entitled to the relevant interest and is attributable to the relevant house ; and

(b) the amount (if any) of any payment which falls to be made in respect of the relevant interest under Part II of the Second Schedule to the Act of 1957.

(3) For the purposes of this paragraph the gross value of the dwelling shall be determined as follows:—

(a) if the dwelling constitutes the whole of the relevant house, the gross value of the dwelling shall be taken to be the value which, on the date of service of the notice to treat, is shown in the valuation list then in force as the gross value of that house for rating purposes ;

(b) if the dwelling is only part of the relevant house, an apportionment shall be made by the valuation officer of the gross value of the relevant house as determined under paragraph (a) of this sub-paragraph, and the gross value of the dwelling shall be taken to be the amount certified by him as being the amount which, on such an apportionment, is properly attributable to the dwelling.

(4) Any reference in this paragraph to the compensation payable in respect of the acquisition of the relevant interest shall be construed as excluding so much (if any) of that compensation as is attributable to disturbance or to severance or injurious affection.

(5) In this paragraph " the valuation officer " has the same meaning as in Part III of the Local Government Act, 1948.

4 (1) Where, in the case of any compulsory acquisition,—

(a) any of the provisions of the Act of 1957 as to site value apply (whether by virtue of that Act or of an order under paragraph 2 of this Schedule); and

(b) the relevant land consists of or includes a hereditament, or part of a hereditament, which has sustained war damage, and any of that damage has not been made good at the date of service of the notice to treat,

there shall be added to the compensation which, apart from this paragraph, would be payable in respect of the acquisition an amount calculated in accordance with sub-paragraph (2) of this paragraph.

(2) The said amount shall be an amount equal to the value, as at the date of service of the notice to treat, of the prospective right to receive such payment (if any) under the War Damage Act, 1943, in respect of that hereditament, or part of a hereditament, as might reasonably have been expected to become payable if the relevant land had not been compulsorily acquired.

5 (1) Where a local authority have before the commencement of this Act made and submitted to the Minister an order under paragraph 2 of the Second Schedule to the Town and Country Planning Act, 1959 (which contains provisions similar to those of paragraph 2 of this Schedule), but the Minister 'has not confirmed that order before the commencement of this Act, sub-paragraphs (2), (4) and (5) of paragraph 2 of this Schedule shall apply in relation to that order as if—

(a) the order had been made under paragraph 2 of this Schedule, and

(b) the reference in sub-paragraph (4) of paragraph 2 of this Schedule to persons on whom notices are required to be served were a reference to persons on whom notices are required to be served under sub-paragraph (3) of paragraph 2 of the Second Schedule to the said Act of 1959.

(2) Any reference in paragraph 1, 3 or 4 of this Schedule to an order under paragraph 2 thereof shall be construed as including a reference to an order—

(a) made and confirmed under paragraph 2 of the Second Schedule to the said Act of 1959, or

(b) made under the said paragraph 2 and confirmed under the provisions of paragraph 2 of this Schedule applied by sub-paragraph (1) of this paragraph.

6 (1) In this Schedule—

• " house " has the meaning assigned to it by section one hundred and eighty-nine of the Act of 1957; and

• " the Act of 1957 " means the Housing Act, 1957.

(2) Any reference in this Schedule to the provisions of the Act of 1957 as to site value is a reference to the following provisions of that Act, that is to say.—

(a) subsection (4) of section twelve (which relates to the purchase of houses found on appeal not to be capable of repair at a reasonable expense);

(b) subsection (2) of section twenty-nine (which relates to the purchase of condemned houses); and

(c) subsections (2) and (3) of section fifty-nine (which relate respectively to the purchase of land comprised in a clearance area and to the purchase, in connection with re-development plans, of houses as being unfit for human habitation).