Land Act, 1933

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Arrears and revision of rents payable by sub-tenants.

17.—Where the whole or part of a holding to which any of the foregoing sections of this Part of this Act applies is sublet otherwise than for any of the following purposes, that is to say, for agistment, conacre, or temporary pasturage, or for temporary convenience, or to meet a temporary necessity, and the Land Commission has not made, before the passing of this Act, an order deeming the sub-tenants to be tenants of separate portions of the holdings, the following provisions shall have effect, that is to say:—

(a) no proceeding by the immediate landlord against any such sub-tenant for the recovery of arrears of rent which accrued due on or before the first gale day in the year 1933 shall be begun after the passing of this Act;

(b) any judgment or decree for the payment of any such arrears obtained in any such proceeding but not executed before the passing of this Act shall, immediately upon such passing, become and be void and unenforceable;

(c) no such proceeding which was begun before and is pending at the passing of this Act shall be further prosecuted or proceeded with by the immediate landlord after such passing unless a defence was filed or entered in such proceeding before such passing;

(d) as soon as may be after the passing of this Act, the Land Commission shall ascertain the amount of the arrears of rent (other than any such rent which was the subject of proceedings by the immediate landlord which were pending at the passing of this Act and in which a defence was filed or entered before such passing) which were due and owing on the 31st day of July, 1933, by every such sub-tenant as aforesaid and the amount of the costs and expenses (if any) incurred by the immediate landlord before the passing of this Act in proceedings for such recovery;

(e) for the purpose of any such ascertainment, the Land Commission may accept any figures agreed upon by the immediate landlord and the sub-tenant concerned;

(f) where the amount so ascertained of such arrears does not exceed three times the yearly amount of the rent (as reduced in pursuance of section 23 of the Land Act, 1923 ) payable by the sub-tenant immediately before the first gale day in the year 1933, the amount so ascertained of such arrears and the amount so ascertained of the said costs and expenses shall be a funded debt within the meaning of this section and be payable in the manner provided by this section and not otherwise;

(g) in every case to which the next preceding paragraph does not apply, the amount so ascertained of the said costs and expenses together with so much of such arrears as is equal to three times the yearly amount of such rent shall be a funded debt within the meaning of this section and shall be payable in the manner provided by this section and not otherwise and the residue of such arrears shall not be payable;

(h) if a funding annuity is charged on the holding the Land Commission shall apportion it between the separate holdings into which the holding has been divided and then—

(i) if the sum payable by means of the portion of such funding annuity charged on the separate holding of the sub-tenant is equal to the funded debt, the sub-tenant shall be entitled to credit for the funded debt as against the sum paid by means of the said portion of such funding annuity, or

(ii) if the sum payable by means of the said portion of the funding annuity is greater than the funded debt, the sub-tenant shall be entitled to credit for the funded debt as against so much of the said portion of such funding annuity as is determined by the Land Commission to be attributable to a sum equal to the funded debt, or

(iii) if the sum payable by means of the said portion of the funding annuity is less than the funded debt, the sub-tenant shall be entitled to credit as against the said portion of such funding annuity for so much of the funded debt as is equal to the sum payable by means of the said portion of such funding annuity, and the residue of the funded debt shall be paid in the manner provided by the next following paragraph of this sub-section;

(i) if no funding annuity is charged on the holding or if the sub-tenant is not entitled under the next preceding paragraph of this sub-section to credit for the whole of the funded debt, the funded debt or the portion thereof for which the sub-tenant is not so entitled to credit shall be paid by means of a funding annuity charged on the separate holding of the sub-tenant;

(j) the Land Commission shall, at such times and in such manner as the Minister for Finance shall direct, pay to the person entitled to the said arrears of rent and costs and expenses a sum equal to that part (if any) of the funded debt for which the sub-tenant is not entitled to credit under the foregoing paragraphs of this sub-section;

(k) if no funded debt is payable by the sub-tenant or if the credit to which the sub-tenant is entitled under the foregoing paragraphs of this section does not extend to the whole of the portion of the funding annuity charged on the separate holding of the sub-tenant, the said portion of the funding annuity or so much thereof as is not covered by the said credit (as the case may be) shall be redeemed out of the redemption price of the intervening interest of the immediate landlord so far as such redemption price will extend after payment thereout of claims in respect of arrears (if any) of payment in lieu of rent or annual sums or additional sums, and so far as such redemption price will not extend by payment by the Land Commission into the Land Bond Fund of such sum as shall be necessary to complete the redemption of the said portion of such funding annuity;

(l) any sum paid by the Land Commission into the Land Bond Fund under the next preceding paragraph of this sub-section shall be recoverable by the Land Commission from the person liable to pay the same as a debt due to the State;

(m) if the Land Commission refuses to declare a sub-tenant to be the tenant of a separate holding, the funded debt in respect of the holding of such sub-tenant shall be recoverable from such sub-tenant by his immediate landlord as if it were arrears of rent due by such subtenant;

(n) the amount payable by the sub-tenant in respect of any gale of rent accruing after the first gale day in the year 1933 and before the date of the order of the Land Commission deeming the sub-tenant to be tenant of a separate portion of the holding shall be 50 per cent. and no more of the full amount (as reduced in pursuance of section 23 of the Land Act, 1923 ) of such gale.