Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1963

19 Restriction on operation of notices to quit agricultural holdings

(1) For the purposes of paragraph (d) of section 24(2) of the Agricultural Holdings Act 1948 (which excludes the restriction placed by subsection (1) of that section on the operation of a notice to quit an agricultural holding in certain cases where a tenant has failed to comply with a notice requiring him to remedy a breach of the terms and conditions of his tenancy)—

(a) a notice requiring the tenant to remedy a breach of any term or condition must be in the prescribed form and must specify the period within which the breach is to be remedied;

(b) where such a notice in the prescribed form requires the doing of any work of repair, maintenance or replacement, any further notice requiring the doing of any such work and served on the tenant less than twelve months after the earlier notice shall be disregarded, unless the earlier notice was withdrawn with his agreement in writing;

(c) a period of less than six months shall not be treated as a reasonable period within which to do any such work ;

but this subsection shall not be taken to affect the operation of the said section 24 in relation to any notice served before the coming into operation of this section or to any failure to comply with a notice so served.

(2) The Lord Chancellor may by order pro vide—

(a) for the determination by arbitration under the said Act of 1948 of any question arising under such a notice as is mentioned in the said paragraph (d), being a notice requiring the doing of any work of repair, maintenance or replacement (including the question whether the notice is capable of having effect for the purposes of that paragraph);

(b) for enabling the time within which anything is to be done in pursuance of such a notice as is mentioned in the said paragraph (d), being a notice requiring the remedying of any breach of the terms and conditions of the tenancy, to be extended or to be treated as having been extended;

(c) for enabling a tenancy, in a case where that time is extended, to be terminated either by a notice to quit served less than twelve months before the date on which it is to be terminated, or at a date other than the end of a year of the tenancy, or both by such a notice and at such a date ;

(d) for the recovery by a tenant of the cost of any work which is done by him in compliance with a notice requiring him to do it but which is found by such an arbitration to be work which he was not under an obligation to do.

(3) Different forms may be prescribed for the purposes of paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of this section in relation to different circumstances.

(4) The power to make an order under the preceding provisions of this section shall be exercisable by statutory instrument, which shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament, and includes power to revoke or vary any order by a subsequent order.

(5) Any expression used in this section and in the Agricultural Holdings Act 1948 has the same meaning in this section as in that Act.

(6) In paragraph (d) of section 24 (2) of the Agricultural Holdings Act 1948 the words " within a reasonable time or " are hereby repealed.

(7) This section shall not come into operation until such day as the Minister may by order made by statutory instrument appoint.