Landlord and Tenant (Requisitioned Land) Act 1944

Where, in the exercise of emergency powers, possession of any land comprised in a lease is taken on behalf of His Majesty, then, during the period while possession so taken is retained, no remedy for breach of any repairing covenant contained in the lease shall be enforced, whether by action or otherwise, in respect of any damage to the land occurring during that period; and if the lease determines while possession of the land is so retained, or if upon such possession of the land being given up, compensation in respect of the taking of possession thereof becomes payable for any such damage to the person entitled to the benefit of the covenant, no remedy for breach of the covenant shall at any time be enforced as aforesaid in respect of that damage.

The provisions of this section shall be deemed to have had effect as from the twenty-fourth day of August, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, and any proceedings for breach of a repairing covenant pending at the commencement of this Act shall, so far as they relate to any such damage as aforesaid, be discontinued upon such terms as the court thinks just.

Where possession of any such land taken as aforesaid at any time after the twenty-fourth day of August, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, is or has at any time since that date been given up during the currency of the lease, and compensation in respect of the taking possession thereof becomes or has become payable for any such damage as aforesaid to any person other that the tenant, then if the tenant incurs expenditure in making good any of that damage, he may recover from that person an amount equal to the expenditure so incurred, not exceeding so much of the compensation payable to that person as may be agreed by the tenant and that person or, in default of agreement, as may be determined by the court, to be payable in respect of that damage.

Subject to the provisions of F1section one hundred and fifteen of the M1County Courts Act 1959 (which provides for the removal into the High Court of any proceedings commenced in a county court), the jurisdiction of the court under this section shall be exercised F2in England and Wales by the county court and in Northern Ireland by a county court.

This section shall, in its application to Scotland, have effect as if for subsection (2) thereof there were substituted the following subsection:—

This section shall, in its application to Northern Ireland, have effect as if for the reference to F1section one hundred and fifteen of the M2County Courts Act 1959 there were substituted a reference to F3section thirty-one of the M3Judicature (Northern Ireland) Act 1978

It is hereby declared that the provisions of subsection (2) of section twelve of the M4Compensation (Defence) Act 1939 (which provides that compensation for damage shall not be paid by virtue of that Act to a person entitled, apart from that Act, to recover any sum by way of damages or indemnity in respect of that damage), do not preclude the recovery by any person of compensation under that Act for damage to land of which possession is taken on behalf of his Majesty by reason only that that person is entitled to the benefit of a repairing covenant which relates to that damage.

References in this Act to compensation payable in respect of the taking of possession of land shall be construed as references to compensation so payable by virtue of any obligation imposed by the M5Compensation (Defence) Act 1939, or by virtue of any arrangements made for the payment of compensation by agreement in accordance with the provisions of section fifteen of that Act; and for the purposes of this Act compensation shall not be deemed not to have become payable to any person by reason only that he has failed duly to make a claim therefor.