Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) Act, 1967

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General right to acquire fee simple.

3.—(1) A person who, as respects any land, is a person to whom this section applies, shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, have the right as incident to his existing interest in the land to enlarge that interest into a fee simple, and for that purpose to acquire by purchase the fee simple in the land and any intermediate interests therein.

(2) Subject to the subsequent provisions of this section, this section applies, as respects any land, to the following persons:

(a) a person holding the land under a building lease, whether granted before or after the commencement of this Act,

(b) a person holding the land under a proprietary lease, whether granted before or after the commencement of this Act,

(c) a person who held the land under—

(i) a building lease which has expired, or

(ii) a proprietary lease which has expired,

and who is entitled to be granted a reversionary lease of the land under the Act of 1958, and

(d) in case the land is a tenement, within the meaning of the Act of 1931—

(i) a person occupying the land under a lease for a term of not less than ninety-nine years which will not expire within twenty-five years after the date of the service by the person of a notice under section 4 of this Act in relation to the land and which reserves a yearly rent (whether redeemed at any time or not) of an amount that is less than the amount of the rateable valuation of the land at the commencement of this Act,

and

(ii) a person who, or whose predecessors in title, has or have been continuously in occupation of the land as yearly tenants during the whole of the period of twenty-five years next preceding the date of the service by the person of a notice under section 4 of this Act in relation to the land at a yearly rent of an amount that, at the date of the service of the notice aforesaid, is less than the amount of the rateable valuation of the land at that date.

(3) The references in subsection (2) of this section to a building lease and a proprietary lease do not include references to—

(i) a lease of land which is used for the purposes of business or includes a building divided into not less than four separate and self-contained flats, being a lease which contains provisions enabling the amount of the rent reserved by the lease to be altered within twenty-six years from the commencement of the lease (not being provisions enabling such rent to be altered once only and within five years from such commencement or upon the erection after such commencement of any buildings upon the land or upon the breach of a covenant, condition or agreement in the lease),

(ii) a lease granted before the commencement of this Act of land which is used for the purposes of business, being a lease which contains provisions requiring the lessee to carry on business on the land which is restricted in whole or in part to dealing in commodities produced or supplied by the lessor,

(iii) a lease of land containing a covenant, condition or agreement by the lessee to erect a building or buildings or carry out development on the land if and so long as the covenant, condition or agreement has not been fully complied with,

(iv) a lease made by the Commissioners of Irish Lights, or

(v) a lease made by a harbour authority, within the meaning of the Harbours Act, 1946 , as lessor, whether before or after the passing of that Act.

(4) This section does not apply, as respects any land, to a person who—

(a) has been declared, by virtue of subsection (1) of section 15 of the Act of 1958, not to be entitled to a reversionary lease of the land under that Act on the expiration of a building or proprietary lease and is in possession of the land under the building or proprietary lease or by virtue of subsection (2) of that section,

(b) occupies that land as lessee under a lease of the kind specified in paragraph (d) of subsection (2) of this section or as a yearly tenant if the buildings on the land were not erected by the person while in occupation of the land or by another person while in occupation of the land as lessee or tenant, but it shall be presumed until the contrary is shown that the buildings were so erected.

(5) (a) The inclusion in the certificate signed by or on behalf of the Commissioner of Valuation on an extract from the Valuation List issued pursuant to section 9 of the Annual Revision of Rateable Property (Ireland) Amendment Act, 1860, of a statement that a valuation shown in the extract is the rateable valuation obtaining on a date specified in the certificate shall be prima facie evidence, for the purposes of paragraph (d) of subsection (2) of this section, of that fact.

(b) Where land demised by a lease or held on a yearly tenancy does not on a particular date bear a separate rateable valuation, the Commissioner of Valuation shall have power for the purposes of this subsection to apportion the rateable valuation or valuations of the properties in which the land was comprised on that date and to charge a fee for the apportionment. Every such fee shall be determined, accounted for and applied in the same manner as the fees charged by the Commissioner pursuant to the said section 9.

(6) Where—

(a) a building lease or a proprietary lease expired within five years before the commencement of this Act,

(b) the person who held the land to which the lease related under the lease is, at such commencement, in possessionof that land under a yearly tenancy arising by implication from the acts of the parties or as a tenant at will or without obtaining a new tenancy, and

(c) no person is, immediately before such commencement, entitled to be granted a reversionary lease under the Act of 1958,

the person shall, during the twelve months immediately after the commencement of this Act, have the same rights in relation to the acquisition of the fee simple in the land under this Act as he would have if he were entitled to be granted a reversionary lease of the land under the Act of 1958.