Transport Act 1968

Allocation of property, rights and liabilities U.K.

1 (1) The provisions of this paragraph shall have effect where a transfer to which this Schedule applies is a transfer of all property, rights and liabilities comprised in a specified part of the transferor’s undertaking, but shall not apply to any such rights or obligations under an agreement for the rendering of personal services. U.K.

(2) Any property, rights or liabilities held or subsisting partly for the purpose of a part of the transferor’s undertaking which is transferred and partly for the purpose of a part of that undertaking which is retained by the transferor shall, where the nature of the property, rights or liability permits, be divided or apportioned between the transferor and the transferee in such proportions as may be appropriate; and, where any estate or interest in land falls to be so divided, any rent payable under a lease in respect of that estate or interest, and any rent charged on that estate or interest, shall be correspondingly apportioned or divided so that the one part is payable in respect of, or charged on, only one part of the estate or interest and the other part is payable in respect of, or charged on, only the other part of the estate or interest.

(3) Sub-paragraph (2) of this paragraph shall apply, with any necessary modifications, in relation to any feuduty payable in respect of an estate or interest in land in Scotland as it applies in relation to any rent charged on an estate or interest in land.

(4) Any property, rights or liabilities held or subsisting as mentioned in sub-paragraph (2) of this paragraph the nature of which does not permit their division or apportionment as so mentioned shall be transferred to the transferee or retained by the transferor according to which of them appear at the transfer date likely to make use of the property, or, as the case may be, to be affected by the right or liability, to the greater extent, subject to such arrangements for the protection of the other of them as may be agreed between them or, if either of them is, or on a vesting by virtue of this Act will become, a wholly-owned subsidiary of some other body, as may be agreed between them and that other body.

(5) It shall be the duty of the transferor and the transferee, whether before or after the transfer date, so far as practicable to arrive at such written agreements, and to execute such other instruments, as are necessary or expedient to identify or define the property, rights and liabilities transferred to the transferee or retained by the transferor and as will—

(a) afford to the transferor and the transferee as against one another such rights and safeguards as they may require for the proper discharge of their respective functions; and

(b) make as from such date, not being earlier than the transfer date, as may be specified in that agreement or instrument such clarifications and modifications of the division of the transferor’s undertaking as will best serve the proper discharge of the respective functions of the transferor and the transferee;

and if either the transferor or the transferee is, or on a vesting by virtue of this Act will become, a wholly-owned subsidiary of some other body, references in the foregoing provisions of this sub-paragraph to the transferor or, as the case may be, the transferee shall include references to that other body.

(6) Any such agreement shall provide so far as it is expedient—

(a) for the granting of leases and for the creation of other liabilities and rights over land whether amounting in law to interests in land or not, and whether involving the surrender of any existing interest or the creation of a new interest or not;

(b) for the granting of indemnities in connection with the severance of leases and other matters;

(c) for responsibility for registration of any matter in any description of statutory register.

(7) If the transferor or the transferee (not being in either case a wholly-owned subsidiary of some other body), or any body of which the transferor or the transferee is, or on a vesting by virtue of this Act will become, a wholly-owned subsidiary, represents to the Minister, or if it appears to the Minister without such a representation, that it is unlikely in the case of any matter on which agreement is required under sub-paragraph (5) of this paragraph that such agreement will be reached, the Minister may, whether before or after the transfer date, give a direction determining the manner in which the property, rights or liabilities in question are to be divided between the transferor and the transferee, and may include in the direction any provision which might have been included in an agreement under the said sub-paragraph (5); and any property, rights or liabilities required by the direction to be transferred to the transferee shall be regarded as having been transferred to, and by virtue of this Act vested in, the transferee accordingly.