Landlord and Tenant (Amendment) Act, 1980

Improvement certificate.

[1931, s. 18]

55.—(1) Where—

(a) in a case in which an improvement notice is served but no improvement undertaking or improvement objection is served, the tenant executes and completes in accordance with the notice the improvement mentioned therein within one year from the service of the notice, or

(b) in a case in which an improvement order is made, the tenant completes the improvement within the time limited in that behalf by the order or, where no such time is so limited, within a reasonable time,

the landlord shall, on the application of the tenant within six months after the completion of the improvement, give to the tenant a certificate (in this section referred to as an improvement certificate) in the prescribed form certifying that the improvement has been duly completed in accordance with the improvement notice or order.

(2) Where an improvement certificate is applied for under subsection (1) and is not given within one month thereafter, the tenant may apply to the Court and, on the hearing of that application, the Court may make such order as justice may require, including an order declaring that the improvement was duly made in accordance with the improvement notice or order.

(3) An improvement certificate shall, as against the landlord by whom it is given, his personal representatives and his successors in title, be conclusive evidence that the improvement was duly executed and completed by the tenant and that all relevant provisions of this Act or any order or notice thereunder were duly complied with by him.

(4) Where, in a case in which work executed on a tenement is an improvement, the work is executed by the tenant in pursuance of an order of a sanitary authority under the Local Government (Sanitary Services) Acts, 1878 to 1964, or a housing authority under the Housing Act, 1966 , the tenant shall not be entitled to an improvement certificate but shall be entitled to obtain from the authority, within six months after the due completion of the work in accordance with the order, a certificate (in this section referred to as a sanitary improvement certificate) in the prescribed form certifying that the work was executed in pursuance of and completed in accordance with an order of the authority.

(5) A sanitary improvement certificate shall, as against the landlord of the tenement, be prima facie evidence of the matters which it purports to certify.

(6) A landlord or authority to whom an application for an improvement certificate or sanitary improvement certificate (as the case may be) is made may, as a condition of giving the certificate, require payment of his or their reasonable expenses of giving the certificate.