Housing Act, 1966

Amendment of certain provisions of, and validation of certain orders under, Act of 1936.

102.—(1) The Act of 1936 shall be amended as follows:

(a) paragraph (d) of subsection (2) of section 17 is hereby amended by the insertion of the following subparagraph after subparagraph (vi):

“(via) that subject to the provisions of subparagraph (iii) of this paragraph, the cottage shall be occupied as his normal place of residence by a person who is a person mentioned in subparagraph (ii) of this paragraph,”;

(b) in section 24—

(i) “or if during such period the cottage for a continuous period of more than eighteen months, is not occupied as his normal place of residence by a person mentioned in subparagraph (ii) of paragraph (d) of subsection (2) of section 17 of this Act,” is hereby inserted before “such board of health may” in subsection (1);

(ii) “any other grounds” is hereby substituted for “failure to comply with any other statutory condition” in subparagraph (ii) of paragraph (b) of subsection (2);

(iii) the following is hereby substituted for subsection (3):

“(3) Notwithstanding subsection (2) of this section, upon the hearing of an application under subsection (1) of this section the justice of the District Court hearing the application may—

(a) in case he is satisfied that the notice required by this section has been duly given and that a statutory condition mentioned in the notice has not been complied with, or

(b) in case he is satisfied that, for a continuous period of more than eighteen months during the payment period in respect of a cottage, the cottage has not been occupied as his normal place of residence by a person mentioned in subparagraph (ii) of subsection (2) of section 17 of this Act and on an undertaking by the applicant to pay to the person in whom, on the date of the application, the cottage is vested an amount approved by the Minister, being not less than the value of the aggregate of the moneys which have been received by the applicant towards the consideration for the purchase of the cottage to which the application relates,

issue the warrant.”;

(iv) in subsection (4), “sections 86 and 87” is hereby substituted for “section 86”, where that reference first occurs and “subject to the modification that where as respects an application under subsection (1) of this section, the name of the owner of a cottage cannot by reasonable enquiry be ascertained, a summons under the said section 86 may be addressed to ‘the owner’ without naming him” is hereby inserted after “this section.”

(v) “and thereupon the cottage shall for all purposes be deemed to be a dwelling provided under the Housing Act, 1966” is hereby inserted after “fee simple” in paragraph (b) of subsection (5);

(vi) the following is hereby inserted after subsection (5):

“(6) Upon the hearing of an application under subsection (1) of this section it shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, that, for a continuous period of more than eighteen months during the payment period in respect of the cottage, the cottage has not been occupied as his normal place of residence by a person mentioned in the said subparagraph (ii).”

(c) in section 27—

(i) “notwithstanding that the annuity relating to the cottage has been redeemed or has otherwise ceased to be payable,” and “(in this section referred to as the consolidated holding)” are hereby inserted after “the Irish Land Commission may” and “one holding” respectively in subsection (1);

(ii) the following is hereby inserted after subsection (1):

“(1A) Subject to subsection (2) of this section, the making of a consolidating order shall operate to transfer to the relevant consolidated holding every estate, interest, right, burden, charge (including an annuity payable under this Act, a purchase annuity payable under the Land Purchase Acts or a reclamation annuity within the meaning of the Land Reclamation Act, 1949 ), liability or equity which immediately before the date of consolidation, was charged upon, attached to or otherwise affected the cottage or holding to which the declaration in the order relates, and any such charge so transferred shall be deemed always to have been charged on the consolidated holding and the amount of the charge shall continue to be recoverable in the manner and with the priority in and with which it could have been recovered before the order was made.”;

(iii) the following is hereby inserted after subsection (2):

“(3) The registering authority under the Act of 1891 shall, on the application of the Irish Land Commission, register the ownership of the consolidated holding and shall make such changes in the appropriate register as appear to him to be necessary”;

(d) paragraph (d) of section 29 is hereby amended by the insertion of “addressing it to ‘the owner’, without naming him and” before “delivering” and by the substitution of “or” for “or by”.

(2) Notwithstanding subsection (2) of section 17 of the Act of 1936, an order made under subsection (1) of that section and expressed to vest a cottage in a person in fee simple on a day being not later than the 31st day of December, 1964, shall be deemed never to have failed to operate to vest the cottage by reason only of the fact that the vesting day expressed in the order is a day other than the gale day which next followed the date of the order.

(3) The power of the Minister under section 20 of the Act of 1936 shall include, and shall be deemed always to have so included, power to amend a map referred to in an order described in that section.

(4) Paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of this section shall be deemed to have come into operation on the 29th day of June, 1936, and every order under section 17 of the Act of 1936 and made before the commencement of this section shall be deemed to have expressed and shall operate and shall be deemed always to have operated to apply the provisions contained in the amendment effected by the said paragraph (a).