Rent Act 1977

68 Application to rent officer by local authority

(1) A local authority may apply to the rent officer for consideration of the fair rent for any dwelling-house within their area for which a rent may be or has been registered under this Part of this Act.

(2) If on the application the rent officer is satisfied that the rent, or the highest rent, payable for the dwelling-house under any lease or agreement exceeds what in his opinion is a fair rent, he shall register a rent for the dwelling-house.

(3) The rent officer may under subsection (2) above take account of the rent payable under any lease or agreement whether or not that exceeds the recoverable rent and whether or not the lease or agreement has taken effect.

(4) Where a rent for a dwelling-house has been registered under this Part of this Act, no application under this section shall be entertained before the expiry of 3 years from the relevant date (as denned in section 67(5) of this Act) except on the ground that, since that date, there has been such a change in—

(a) the condition of the dwelling-house (including the making of any improvement therein);

(b) the terms of the tenancy ;

(c) the quantity, quality or condition of any furniture provided for use under the tenancy (deterioration by fair wear and tear excluded), or

(d) any other circumstances taken into consideration when the rent was registered or confirmed,

as to make the registered rent no longer a fair rent.

(5) For the purposes of section 67(5)(a), a case where the rent officer does not register a rent on an application under this section shall not be treated as a confirmation of any rent already registered.

(6) Section 67(6) of this Act shall apply to an application under this section as it applies to an application for the registration of a rent.

(7) Regulations shall be made under section 74 of this Act prescribing the procedure on an application under this section, and the regulations shall prescribe the notices to be given to, and the rights to make representations of, the landlord and tenant.

(8) The regulations shall confer on the landlord and the tenant a right to object to the determination of a rent by the rent officer on an application under this section and, on receipt of such an objection in circumstances prescribed by the regulations, shall provide for the reference of the matter to a rent assessment committee.

(9) In this section " local authority " means a local authority to whom section 149 of this Act applies.