Landlord and Tenant Act, 1931

Valuation of improvement by Commissioner of Valuation.

26.—(1) Where an application is made under this Act to the Court to determine the right of the person (in this section referred to as the applicant) making the application to relief under this Act the following provisions shall have effect, that is to say:—

(a) where the applicant claims compensation for improvements as original relief, the applicant shall lodge in the Circuit Court Office with the originating notice of motion or other originating document an improvement statement in duplicate;

(b) where the applicant claims a new tenancy as original relief and claims compensation for improvements (with or without compensation for disturbance) as alternative relief and the Court determines that the applicant is not entitled to such original relief, the further hearing of the application shall be adjourned and the applicant shall lodge in the Circuit Court Office an improvement statement in duplicate;

(c) every improvement statement lodged in a Circuit Court Office in pursuance of this sub-section shall be in the prescribed form and shall state the prescribed particulars of the improvement or each of the several improvements in respect of which compensation for improvements is claimed;

(d) whenever an applicant is required by this sub-section to lodge in the Circuit Court Office an improvement statement, such applicant shall, either before or within three days after such lodgment, furnish a copy of such improvement statement to the landlord or superior landlord from whom such compensation is claimed.

(2) Whenever an improvement statement is lodged in the Circuit Court Office in pursuance of this section, the county registrar shall forthwith send one duplicate of such improvement statement to the Commissioner of Valuation and Boundary Surveyor, and upon receipt of such statement the said Commissioner shall cause the tenement in which the improvement or the several improvements mentioned in such statement was or were made to be inspected and a valuation to be made in the prescribed form stating the following matters in respect of such improvement or of each of the several such improvements, that is to say:—

(a) an estimate of the addition (if any) to the letting value of the said tenement at the termination of the relevant tenancy which is attributable to such improvement, and

(b) the probable duration of such addition, the probable life of the improvement, and any other matter relevant to the calculation of the capitalised value of such addition, and

(c) an estimate of the capitalised value of such addition.

(3) The said Commissioner shall cause the said valuation to be sent to the county registrar together with a statement of the fee, calculated in accordance with regulations made by the Minister for Finance, payable for such valuation.

(4) The applicant shall, on demand by the county registrar, pay to the county registrar the amount of the said fee payable for such valuation and until such fee is so paid no further proceedings shall be had in the matter, but upon payment of such fee the applicant and any other party shall be entitled to obtain from the county registrar a copy of the said valuation upon payment therefor at the rate for the time being chargeable by law for copies of documents obtained from the Circuit Court Office.

(5) The Court, in fixing the amount of the said compensation for improvements, shall have regard to the several estimates and statements contained in the said valuation.

(6) The fee paid by an applicant for a valuation under this section shall, unless the Court otherwise directs, ultimately be borne in equal shares by the applicant and the person from whom he claims the compensation for improvements in relation to which such valuation was made.

(7) Every fee received by a county registrar for a valuation under this section shall be paid by such county registrar into or disposed of by him for the benefit of the Exchequer in such manner as the Minister for Finance shall direct.