Gilsenan v Foundary House Investments Ltd

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: O'HIGGINS C.J.,Henchy J. ,GRIFFIN J.
• Judgment Date: 14 November 1980
• Neutral Citation: 1980 WJSC-SC 2323
• Judgment citation (vLex): [1980] 11 JIC 1401
• Court: Supreme Court
• Date: 14 November 1980

(S.C.)

Gilsenan

and

Foundary House Investments Ltd

Fixing of price in absence of agreement - Whether statutory provisions regarding purchase workable - Price to be determined by reference to rent payable under ninety-nine year lease by willing lessee to willing lessor - Reference rent to be reviewable during ninety-nine-year period - Impossibility of determining rent - Landlord and Tenant (Reversionary Leases) Act, 1958 (No. 2), s. 18 - Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) Act, 1967 (No.3), s. 18 - Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) (No. 2) Act, 1978 (No. 16), s. 17.

The applicant sought to purchase the fee simple, or ground rent, interest held by his landlord, the respondents, under the provisions of the Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) Act, 1967. The amount payable was determined by the County Registrar to be £10,000, and the respondents appealed the decision to the Circuit Court, which stated a Case for the Supreme Court as to whether the price could, in the circumstances of the case, be determined. At the date of applying for purchase of the fee simple, the applicant held the property in question under a lease which had less than 15 years to its expiration. Under s. 18 of the 1967 Act, as re-enacted with amendments by s. 17 of the Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) (No. 2) Act, 1978, where a lessee proposed to purchase the fee simply in property held under a lease with less than 15 years to expiration, the sum payable, in the absence of agreement, was to be calculated by the County Registrar 'having had regard to' the rent which would be reserved by a reversionary lease granted under the Landlord and Tenant (Reversionary Leases) Act, 1958. Under the 1958 Act, such a reversionary lease was to be for a fixed yearly rent for a term of ninety-nine years and the rent was to be calculated...