Part I Compulsory Purchase under Acquisition of Land Act of 1946
Entry on the land
11 Powers of entry.
(1)
If the acquiring authority have served notice to treat in respect of any of the land and have served on the owner, lessee and occupier of that land F1a notice of entry, the acquiring authority may enter on and take possession of that land, or of such part of that land as is specified in the notice F2, after the end of a period specified in the notice; and then any compensation agreed or awarded for the land of which possession is taken shall carry interest at the rate prescribed under section 32 of the M1Land Compensation Act 1961 from the time of entry until the compensation is paid or is paid into court in accordance with this Act.
Where under this subsection a notice is required to be served on an owner of land, and the land is ecclesiastical property as defined in F3section 12(3) of the Acquisition of Land Act, a like notice shall be served on the F4Diocesan Board of Finance for the diocese in which the land is situated.
In this subsection “owner” has the meaning given by F5section 7(1) of the Acquisition of Land Act.
F6(1A)
A notice of entry under subsection (1) must specify the period after the end of which the acquiring authority may enter on and take possession of the land to which the notice relates.
(1B)
The period specified in a notice of entry under subsection (1) must not end earlier than the end of the period of 3 months beginning with the day on which the notice is served unless it is a notice to which section 11A(4) or paragraph 13 of Schedule 2A applies.
F7(1C)
A notice of entry under subsection (1) must explain the effect of section 11B (counter-notice requiring possession to be taken on specified date) and give an address at which the acquiring authority may be served with a counter-notice.
F8(1D)
An acquiring authority may extend the period specified in a notice of entry under subsection (1) by agreement with each person on whom it was served.
(1E)
A reference in this Act to the period specified in a notice of entry under subsection (1) is to the period as extended by any agreement under subsection (1D).
(2)
(3)
For the purpose of F11surveying, valuing or taking levels of any of the land subject to compulsory purchase, of probing or boring to ascertain the nature of the soil and of setting out the line of the works, the acquiring authority, after giving not less than three nor more than fourteen days’ notice to the owners or occupiers of that land, may enter on that land, but the acquiring authority shall make compensation for any damage thereby occasioned to the owners or occupiers of the land, and any question of disputed compensation under this subsection shall be referred to the F12Upper Tribunal.
(4)
Except as provided by the foregoing provisions of this section, the acquiring authority shall not, except with the consent of the owners and occupiers, enter on any of the land subject to compulsory purchase until the compensation payable for the respective interests in that land has been agreed or awarded, and has been paid to the persons having those interests or has been paid into court in accordance with this Act.
11APowers of entry: further notices of entry
(1)
This section applies where—
(a)
an acquiring authority have given a notice of entry under section 11(1) but have not yet entered on and taken possession of the land, and
(b)
the authority become aware of an owner, lessee or occupier (“the newly identified person”) to whom they ought to have given a notice to treat under section 5(1) but have not.
(2)
Any notice of entry already served under section 11(1) remains valid, but the authority may not enter on and take possession of the land unless they serve on the newly identified person—
(a)
a notice to treat under section 5(1), and
(b)
a notice of entry under section 11(1).
(3)
Subsection (4) applies for the purpose of determining the period to be specified in the notice of entry under section 11(1) served on the newly identified person if—
(a)
the person is an occupier of the land and the authority were not aware of the person because they were given misleading information when carrying out inquiries under section 5(1), or
(b)
the person is not an occupier of the land.
(4)
The period specified in the notice must be a period that ends—
(a)
no earlier than the end of the period of 14 days beginning with the day on which the notice of entry is served, and
(b)
no earlier than the end of the period specified in any previous notice of entry given by the acquiring authority in respect of the land.
11BCounter-notice requiring possession to be taken on specified date
(1)
Where an acquiring authority serve a notice of entry under section 11(1) on an occupier with an interest in land, the occupier may serve a counter-notice requiring the acquiring authority to take possession of the land by no later than a date specified in the counter-notice.
(2)
If the occupier gives up possession of the land on or before the specified date the acquiring authority are to be treated as having taken possession on that date (unless the acquiring authority has in fact taken possession before that date).
(3)
The date specified in the counter-notice—
(a)
must not be before the end of the period specified in the notice of entry under section 11(1), and
(b)
must be at least 28 days after the day on which the counter-notice is served.
(4)
A counter-notice under subsection (1) has no effect if the notice to treat relating to the land is withdrawn or ceases to have effect before the date specified in the counter-notice.
(5)
A counter-notice under subsection (1) has no effect if it would require an acquiring authority to take possession of land at a time when section 11A or paragraph 6 of Schedule 2A prohibit the authority from entering on and taking possession of the land.
(6)
If subsection (5) applies, the authority must notify the occupier who served the counter-notice—
(a)
that the counter-notice has no effect, and
(b)
if the authority serve a notice of entry as mentioned in section 11A(2)(b), of the date after which the authority could enter on and take possession of the land.
(7)
If a counter-notice served under subsection (1) has no effect because of subsection (5), the occupier who served it may serve a further counter-notice.
(8)
Where a notice of entry under section 11(1) is served on more than one occupier with the same interest in the land, a reference in this section to the occupier with an interest in land is to all of them acting together.
12 Unauthorised entry.
(1)
If the acquiring authority, or any of their contractors, wilfully enter on and take possession of any of the land subject to compulsory purchase in contravention of subsection (4) of the last foregoing section, the acquiring authority shall forfeit to the person in possession of that land the sum of ten pounds in addition to the amount of any damage done to the land by entering and taking possession.
(2)
The said sum of ten pounds, and the amount of any such damage, shall be recoverable summarily as a civil debt.
(3)
An appeal shall lie to a court of quarter sessions against an order of a magistrates’ court adjudging a sum to be forfeited under the foregoing provisions of this section.
(4)
If, after a sum has been adjudged to be forfeited under this section, the acquiring authority, or their contractors, remain in unlawful possession of any of the land the acquiring authority shall be liable to forfeit the sum of twenty-five pounds for every day on which they so remain in possession.
(5)
A sum forfeited under the last foregoing subsection shall be recoverable by the person in possession of that land in the High Court, and in any such proceedings the decision of the magistrates’ court shall not be conclusive as to the acquiring authority’s right of entry.
(6)
This section shall not subject the acquiring authority to the payment of a penalty if they have in good faith and without collusion paid the compensation agreed or awarded in respect of the land to a person whom they reasonably believed to be entitled to the compensation, or have paid it into court for the benefit of the person entitled to the land F15... although such person may not have been legally entitled thereto.
13 Refusal to give possession to acquiring authority.
(1)
If the acquiring authority are under this Act authorised to enter on and take possession of any land, and the owner or occupier of any of that land, or any other person, refuses to give up possession of it, or hinders the acquiring authority from entering on or taking possession of it, the acquiring authority may issue their warrant to F16—
(a)
the sheriff, or
(b)
the enforcement officer,
to deliver possession of it to the person appointed in the warrant to receive it.
(2)
On receipt of the warrant F17the person to whom it is issued shall deliver possession of any such land accordingly.
F18(2A)
If, by virtue of paragraph 3A of Schedule 7 to the Courts Act 2003, the warrant is issued to two or more persons collectively, the duty in subsection (2) of this section shall apply to the person to whom the warrant is allocated in accordance with the approved arrangements mentioned in that Schedule.
(3)
The costs accruing by reason of the issue and execution of the warrant, to be settled by F19the person executing the warrant, shall be paid by the person refusing to give possession, and the amount of those costs shall be deducted and retained by the acquiring authority from the compensation, if any, payable by them to that person.
(4)
If no compensation is payable to the person refusing to give possession, or if it is less than the amount of the costs, that amount or the amount by which the costs exceed the compensation, if not paid on demand, shall be F20recovered by using the procedure in Schedule 12 to the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 (taking control of goods), and on application to any justice of the peace for that purpose he shall issue his warrant accordingly.
F21(5)
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(6)
In this sectionF22—
"the enforcement officer", in relation to a warrant to deliver possession of land under this section, means the officer or officers identified for that purpose in paragraph 3A of Schedule 7 to the Courts Act 2003, and
“sheriff” includes an under sheriff or other legally competent deputy, and means the sheriff for the area where the land is situated, or if land in one ownership is not situated wholly in one such area the sheriff for the area where any part of the land is situated.