Land Act, 1933

Arrears and revision of rent and interest payable to the Land Commission.

16.—(1) The following provisions shall have effect in relation to proceedings by the Land Commission for the recovery of any arrears of any rent or interest on purchase money to which this section applies which accrued due on or before the first gale day in the year 1933, that is to say:—

(a) no such proceedings 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 Land Commission after such passing unless a defence was filed or entered in such proceeding before such passing.

(2) As soon as may be after the passing of this Act, the Land Commission shall ascertain the amount of the arrears of rent or interest on purchase money to which this section applies which were due and owing on the 31st day of July, 1933, by every tenant or allottee by whom any such rent or interest is payable, and the amount of the costs and expenses (if any) incurred by the Land Commission before the passing of this Act in proceedings (if any) commenced before the 1st day of October, 1932, for the recovery of such arrears, and immediately upon such ascertainment—

(a) where the amount so ascertained of such arrears does not exceed three times the yearly amount of such rent or interest (as the case may be), such arrears and the amount so ascertained of the said costs and expenses together with interest at the rate of four and one-half per cent. per annum on the said arrears, costs and expenses from the first gale day in the year 1933 shall (if such arrears, costs and expenses are not otherwise paid before the passing of this Act) be added to the purchase money of the holding or parcel when it is vested in the purchaser; and

(b) in every other case, the amount so ascertained of the said costs and expenses and so much of such arrears as is equal to three times the yearly amount of such rent or interest (as the case may be) together with interest at the rate of four and one-half per cent. per annum on the said costs and expenses and so much as aforesaid of the said arrears from the first gale day in the year 1933 shall (if not otherwise paid before the passing of this Act) be added to the purchase money of the holding or parcel when it is vested in the purchaser, and the residue of the said arrears shall not be payable.

(3) The amount payable by the tenant or allottee in respect of any gale accruing after the first gale day in the year 1933 of any rent or interest on purchase money to which this section applies shall—

(a) in the case of interest payable by an allottee in respect of a parcel of land which was purchased under the Irish Land (Provision for Sailors and Soldiers) Act, 1919 , or was, on the 28th day of June, 1933, vested in the Land Commission under the Land Act, 1923 , or any Act amending or extending that Act, be 45 per cent. and no more of the full amount of such gale; and

(b) in every other case, be 50 per cent. of the full amount of such gale.

(4) The next preceding sub-section of this section shall apply to rent or interest on purchase money notwithstanding that the price at which the Land Commission is prepared to sell the holding in respect of which such rent or interest is payable is an enhanced price owing to expenditure by the Land Commission on improvements, but the said sub-section shall not apply to any rent or interest on purchase money payable wholly in respect of expenditure for improvements sanctioned specifically after the 28th day of June, 1933, for the improvement of a holding or parcel of untenanted land, nor to so much of any rent or interest on purchase money (payable partly in repayment of such expenditure) as is attributable to such expenditure.

(5) This section applies to rents and interest on purchase money payable to the Land Commission by tenants of holdings or allottees of parcels of land under agreements or undertakings to purchase, lettings for temporary convenience, or grazing or other agreements on lands acquired by the Congested Districts Board or by the Land Commission.