51 Cancellation of registration of rent.S
(1)Where a rent agreement is made in writing as respects a dwelling-house for which a rent is registered, an application may be made in accordance with this section for the cancellation of the registration.
(2)The application shall be made jointly by the landlord and the tenant under the agreement to the rent officer, and the application shall not be entertained before the expiry of three years from the relevant date as defined in section 46(5) above.
(3)An application under this section must be in the prescribed form and contain the prescribed particulars, and must be accompanied by a copy of the rent agreement.
(4)The Secretary of State may make regulations under section 53 below prescribing the procedure on an application under this section.
(5)If the rent officer is satisfied that the rent payable under the rent agreement does not exceed a fair rent for the dwelling-house, he shall, subject to subsection (6) below, cancel the registration, and he shall make an entry in the register of that fact and of the date from which the cancellation takes effect.
(6)Where under the terms of the rent agreement the sums payable by the tenant to the landlord include any sums varying according to the cost from time to time of any services provided by the landlord, the rent officer shall not cancel the registration unless he is satisfied that those terms are reasonable.
(7)The cancellation of the registration shall be without prejudice to a further registration of a rent at any time after concellation.
(8)The rent officer shall notify the applicants of his decision to grant, or to refuse, any application under this section and, where he grants the application, of the date from which the cancellation takes effect.
(9)In this section “rent agreement” means—
(a)an agreement increasing the rent payable under a protected tenancy which is a regulated tenancy, or
(b)where a regulated tenancy is terminated, and a new regulated tenancy is granted at a rent exceeding the rent under the previous tenancy, the grant of the new tenancy.