Emergency Laws (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1953

7 (1) Where the person to whom compensation is payable under paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of section two of the Compensation (Defence) Act, 1939, in respect of any land of which possession has been taken in the exercise of powers conferred by or under Regulation fifty-one of the Defence (General) Regulations, 1939, holds the land on a lease, the lessor may make an application to the authority or person by whom possession was so taken, and if—

(a) the said authority or person is satisfied that the lessee is wholly exempt, by virtue of any provision of the Landlord and Tenant (War Damage) Acts, 1939 and 1941, from liability to pay rent; or

(b) the said authority or person does not know the address of the lessee or of any person authorized to act on his behalf and for that reason cannot pay the compensation aforesaid, and is satisfied that rent has been due from the lessee throughout the period of six months immediately preceding the application and that no payment of rent has been made by him during that period;

the said authority or person may serve on the lessor a notice stating that the said compensation, whether due before or after the date of the notice, will be paid to the lessor instead of to the lessee, and the said compensation shall be paid accordingly.

(2) Any notice served toy an authority or person under this paragraph may be revoked by a subsequent notice so served, but without prejudice to any payment previously made in accordance with the revoked notice.

(3) For the purposes of section eleven of the Compensation (Defence) Act, 1939, any compensation payable to the lessor by virtue of a notice served under sub-paragraph (1) of this paragraph in respect of any period before the date of that notice shall be deemed to accrue due on that date.

(4) Where any notice is served on a lessor under this paragraph, he shall take all reasonable steps to communicate its contents to the lessee, and any sum paid to the lessor by virtue of any such notice in respect of any period shall be appropriated in or towards satisfaction of the liability (if any) of the lessee for rent in respect of that period and, if the sum so paid in respect of any period exceeds the rent payable by the lessee in respect of that period (apart from any exemption under the Landlord and Tenant (War Damage) Acts, 1939 and 1941), a sum equal to the excess and free from any deduction by way of set-off in respect of any other debt shall be recoverable from the lessor by the lessee.

(5) Where any such compensation as aforesaid is paid in respect of any period to a lessee who, by virtue of any provision of the Landlord and Tenant (War Damage) Acts, 1939 and 1941, is wholly or partly exempt from his liability for rent in respect of that period, the whole of that compensation shall, in a case where the lessee is wholly relieved of the said liability, be recoverable from him by the lessor and, in a case where the lessee is partly relieved of the said liability, the amount, if any, by which the compensation exceeds the amount of rent which he is liable to pay shall be so recoverable :

Provided that, if the amount of the compensation payable in respect of the said period exceeds the sum which the lessee would, but for the exemption aforesaid, be liable to pay for rent in respect of that period, the lessee may retain (in addition to the sum, if any, which he is entitled to retain by virtue of the foregoing provisions of this sub-paragraph) the amount of the excess.

(6) Nothing in this paragraph shall apply to any compensation accruing due before the seventeenth day of September, nineteen hundred and forty-two.

(7) A notice to be served on any person for the purposes of this paragraph may be served by sending it by post in a letter addressed to that person at his last or usual place of abode or place of business.

(8) In this paragraph the following expressions have the meanings hereby respectively assigned to them, that is to say—

• " lease " means a lease, underlease or other tenancy, assignment operating as a lease or underlease, or an agreement for such lease, underlease, tenancy or assignment;

• " lessor ", in relation to a lease, means the person who under the lease is as between himself and the lessee for the time being entitled to the rents and profits of the demised premises payable under the lease and, in a case where the reversion immediately expectant on the lease is mortgaged and the mortgagee is in possession thereof or has appointed a receiver of the rents and profits thereof, means that mortgagee.

(9) In the application of this paragraph to Scotland—

(a) for any reference to the Landlord and Tenant (War Damage) Acts, 1939 and 1941, there shall be substituted a reference to the War Damage to Land (Scotland) Act, 1939, and the War Damage to Land (Scotland) Act, 1941 ;

(b) the expression " underlease " means sub-lease ; and

(c) sub-paragraph (8) shall have effect as if the definition of " lessor " were omitted.

(10) In the application of this paragraph to Northern Ireland, for any reference to the Landlord and Tenant (War Damage) Acts, 1939 and 1941, there shall be substituted a reference to the Landlord and Tenant (War Damage) Act (Northern Ireland), 1941.

(11) Any notice served under Regulation seventy-nine CA of the Defence (General) Regulations, 1939, which is in force at the commencement of this Act shall continue in force and be deemed to have been served under this paragraph.