Housing (Regulation of Approved Housing Bodies) Act 2019

Examinership: modification of Part 10 of Act of 2014 for purposes of application to AHBs

56. (1) For the purposes of the application of Part 10 of the Act of 2014 to a company that is an AHB, that Part shall apply to such a company subject to the modifications specified in subsection (2) and any other modifications necessary for those purposes.

(2) The modifications referred to in subsection (1) are that—

(a) in section 508(1), the following definitions are inserted:

“ ‘approved housing body’, ‘dwelling’ and ‘Regulator’ have the meanings given to them, respectively, by section 2 of the Housing (Regulation of Approved Housing Bodies) Act 2019;”,

(b) in section 510, the following subsection is inserted after subsection (5):

“(6) Where the company referred to in section 509 is an approved housing body, the following provisions shall apply:

(a) a petition may be presented by—

(i) any of the persons referred to in paragraph (a), (b), (c) or (d) of subsection (1) (including by any one or more of such persons acting together),

(ii) the Regulator, or

(iii) one or more of such persons and the Regulator acting together;

(b) if the Regulator does not present a petition—

(i) the petitioner shall, before the petitioner presents the petition at the office of the court, cause to be received by the Regulator a notice, in writing, of the petitioner’s intention to present the petition, and shall serve a copy of the petition on the Regulator as soon as may be after the presentation of it at that office,

(ii) the Regulator shall be entitled to appear and be heard at any hearing relating to the petition.”,

(c) in section 516, the following subsection is inserted after subsection (4):

“(5) If—

(a) the company concerned, being an approved housing body, is a company referred to in section 509, and

(b) the Regulator does not propose to present, or has not presented, (whether alone or acting together with other persons) a petition in relation to the company,

the independent expert shall, as soon as may be after it is prepared, supply a copy of the report prepared by him or her under section 511 to the Regulator and subsections (2) and (3) shall not apply to such a copy.”,

(d) in section 533—

(i) the following subsection is inserted after subsection (7):

“(7A) If the company concerned is a company referred to in section 510(6), the examiner shall, as soon as may be after it is prepared, supply a copy of the report prepared by him or her under subsection (2) to the Regulator, and subsections (5) and (6) shall not apply to such a copy.”,

and

(ii) in subsection (8), the following paragraph is inserted after paragraph (f):

“(fa) if the company concerned is a company referred to in section 510(6) - the Regulator;”,

(e) in section 534(6) —

(i) in paragraph (a), “and” is deleted, and

(ii) the following paragraph is inserted after paragraph (a):

“(aa) if the company concerned is a company referred to in section 510(6) - the Regulator, and”,

(f) in section 539(1), the following paragraph is inserted after paragraph (g):

“(ga) in the case of a company referred to in section 510(6), include proposals for the protection of dwellings provided or managed in furtherance of the primary object or primary objects of the company as specified in section 25 (2)(b)(i) of the Housing (Regulation of Approved Housing Bodies) Act 2019,”,

(g) in section 540, the following subsection is inserted after subsection (12):

“(13) Without prejudice to subsections (1) to (11), in the case of a company referred to in section 510(6), the examiner shall also afford the Regulator an opportunity to consider the proposals for a compromise or scheme of arrangement and, for this purpose, shall furnish to the Regulator a statement containing the like information to that referred to in subsection (11).”,

(h) in section 541(2), the following paragraph is inserted after paragraph (d):

“(da) if the company concerned is a company referred to in section 510(6) - the Regulator;”,

and

(i) in section 553(3), the following paragraph is inserted after paragraph (b):

“(ba) if the company to which the order relates is a company referred to in section 510(6) - the Regulator;”.