Increase of rent and mortgage interest (restrictions) act, 1923

• Enactment Date: 22 June 1923
• Act Number: 19

Number 19.
INCREASE OF RENT AND MORTGAGE INTEREST (RESTRICTIONS) ACT, 1923.
ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS
Section 1. Interpretation of the Act. 2. Determination of the standard rent. 3. Application of the Act. 4. Restrictions on right to possession. 5. Restriction on levy of distress for rent. 6. Conditions of statutory tenancy. 7. Determination of rent to be paid by tenant. 8. Permitted increases of rent. 9. Restrictions on calling in of mortgages. 10. Permitted increase of mortgage interest. 11. Period during which increase of rent permitted. 12. Restriction on increasing rent and mortgage interest. 13. Restriction on premiums. 14. Special powers for raising money for repairs. 15. Recovery of sums made irrecoverable, &c. 16. Liability for rates on unoccupied houses. 17. Application to business premises. 18. Jurisdiction of county and district courts. 19. Rules as to procedure. 20. Short Title and Duration.
SCHEDULE
Number 19.
INCREASE OF RENT AND MORTGAGE INTEREST (RESTRICTIONS) ACT, 1923.
AN ACT TO AMEND AND CONTINUE CERTAIN EXISTING RESTRICTIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE INCREASE OF RENT AND RECOVERY OF POSSESSION OF PREMISES, IN CERTAIN CASES, AND THE INCREASE OF THE RATE OF INTEREST ON, AND THE CALLING IN OF, SECURITIES ON SUCH PREMISES, AND FOR PURPOSES IN CONNECTION THEREWITH. [22nd June, 1923.]
BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS OF SAORSTÁT EIREANN AS FOLLOWS:—
	Interpretation of the Act.	1. For the purposes of this Act, except where the context otherwise requires:—
	(a) The expression “standard rent” means the rent determined in manner hereinafter provided, which in the year ending the third day of August nineteen hundred and fourteen the immediate landlord of an occupying tenant of the dwelling-house might reasonably have expected under any given contract of tenancy not being for more than a term of five years;
	(b) The expression “increased rent” means rent exceeding the standard rent;
	(c) The expression “standard rate of interest” means in the case of a mortgage in force on the third day of August nineteen hundred and fourteen, the rate of interest payable at that date, or, in the case of a mortgage created since that date, the original rate of interest;
	(d) The expression “increased rate of interest” means interest exceeding the standard rate of interest;
	(e) The expression “rates” includes water rents and charges, and any increase in rates payable by a landlord shall be deemed to be payable by him until the rate is next demanded;
	(f) The expression “rateable value” means the annual rateable value under the Irish Valuation Acts: Provided that, where part of a house let as a separate dwelling is not separately valued under those Acts, the Commissioner of Valuation and Boundary Surveyor may, on the application of the landlord or tenant, make such apportionment of the rateable value of the whole house as seems just, and his decision as to the amount to be apportioned to the part of the house shall be final and conclusive, and that amount shall be taken to be the rateable value of the part of the house for the purposes of this Act but not further or otherwise;
	(g) The expressions “landlord,” “tenant,” “mortgagee” and “mortgagor” include any person from time to time deriving title under the original landlord, tenant, mortgagee, or mortgagor;
	(h) The expression “landlord” also includes in relation to any dwelling-house any person, other than the tenant, who is or would but for this Act be entitled to possession of the dwelling-house, and the expressions “tenant and tenancy” include sub-tenant and sub-tenancy, and the expression “let” includes sub-let; and the expression “tenant” includes the widow of a tenant dying intestate who was residing with him at the time of his death, or, where a tenant dying intestate leaves no widow or is a woman, such member of the tenant's family so residing as aforesaid as may be decided in default of agreement by the Court;
	(i) The expression “mortgage” includes a charge by registered disposition under the Local Registration of Title (Ireland) Act, 1891;
	(j) The expressions “statutory undertaking” and “statutory duties or powers” include any undertaking, duties or powers, established, imposed or exercised under any order having the force of an Act of Parliament;
	(k) The expression “prescribed” means prescribed by the rules made under this Act;
	(l) The expression “Sanitary Authority” has the same meaning as in the Public Health (Ireland) Acts, 1878 to 1919, and includes both Urban Sanitary Authority and Rural Sanitary Authority.
	Determination of the standard rent.	2.—(1) The standard rent shall be determined in the following manner:—
	(a) If the dwelling-house was on the third day of August nineteen hundred and fourteen let to an occupying tenant under a contract of tenancy not being for more than a term of five years, then the rent at which the dwelling-house was so let, or, where the dwelling-house was not so let on that date, the rent at which it was last, within a period of three years, so let before that date, shall, subject to the deduction specified in the next succeeding sub-section, be the standard rent.
	(b) In any case not coming within the provisions of the last preceding paragraph, the standard rent shall be determined by the Court on the application in the prescribed manner of the landlord or the tenant: Provided that, pending any such application to the Court, the rent at which the dwelling-house was let on the third day of August nineteen hundred and fourteen, or, where the dwelling-house was not let on that date, the rent at which it was last let before that date, or, in the case of a dwelling-house which was first let after the said third day of August, the rent at which it was first let shall, subject to the deduction specified in the next succeeding sub-section, be the standard rent.
	(2) Where the landlord at the time by reference to which the standard rent is calculated habitually paid or allowed a deduction or set off against or indemnified the tenant against the rates chargeable on, or which but for the provisions of any Act would be chargeable on the occupier, the amount of such rates shall, for the purpose of such calculation, be deducted from any rent by reference to which such calculation is made.
	(3) For the purpose of determining the standard rent under sub-section (1) of this section the rent at which a dwelling-house let at a progressive rent payable under any contract of tenancy was let, means the maximum rent payable under such contract of tenancy.
	(4) Where, for the purpose of determining the standard rent or rateable value of any dwelling-house to which this Act applies, it is necessary to apportion the rent at the date in relation to which the standard rent is to be fixed, or the rateable value of the property in which that dwelling-house is comprised, the Court may, on application by either party, make such apportionment as seems just.
	(5) A landlord of any dwelling-house to which this Act applies shall, on being so requested in writing by the tenant of the dwelling-house, supply him with a statement in writing affording any information in the landlord's possession or procurement requisite to enable the tenant to determine the standard rent of the dwelling-house or have the same determined by the Court, and if, without reasonable excuse, the landlord fails within fourteen days to do so, or supplies a statement which is false in any material particular, and not proved to have been made innocently and without intent to deceive, he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding ten pounds.
	Application of the Act.	3.—(1) This Act shall subject to the provisions of this section apply to a house or a part of a house let as a separate dwelling, where either the annual amount of the standard rent or the rateable value does not exceed:—
	(a) in the county borough of Dublin and the Urban Districts in the Dublin Metropolitan Police area sixty pounds, and
	(b) elsewhere, forty pounds,
	and every such house or part of a house shall be deemed to be a dwelling-house to which this Act applies:
	Provided that—
	(i.) this Act shall not apply to a dwelling-house bona fide let at a rent which includes payments in respect of board, attendance, or use of furniture, unless on an apportionment of such rent under this section the portion of such rent attributable to the dwelling-house alone equals or exceeds three-quarters of the rent, in which case this Act shall apply to the dwelling-house, or at the option of the landlord shall apply as if the dwelling-house had been let at the said portion of the rent so attributable to the dwelling-house alone;
	(ii.) the application of this Act to any house or part of a house shall not be excluded by reason only that part of the premises is used as a shop or office or for business, trade, or professional purposes; and
	(iii.) for the purposes of this Act, any land or premises let together with a house shall, if the rateable value of the land or premises let separately would be less than one quarter of the rateable value of the house, be treated as part of the house, but, subject to this provision, this Act shall not apply to a house let together with land other than the site of the house.
	(2) Any rooms in a dwelling-house subject to a separate letting wholly or partly as a dwelling shall, for the purposes of this Act, be treated as a part of a dwelling-house let as a separate dwelling.
	(3) Where a dwelling-house is let, or was let at the date in relation to which the standard rent is to be fixed, at a rent which includes payments in respect of board, attendance, or...