Rabbitt v Grant [Supreme Court.]

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 19 February 1940
• Date: 19 February 1940
• Court: Supreme Court

(S.C.),

Rabbitt

and

Grant

Permitted increases -Premises structurally altered to abate nuisance -Increase of rent claimed for "improvement or structural alteration" - Whether alterations were also repairs - Whether increase allowable -Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act, 1923 (No. 19 of 1923), s. 8. sub-ss. 1 (a) and 5.

1. Sect. 8 of the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act, 1923, provides: —"8. —(1) The amount by which the increased rent of a dwelling-house to which this Act applies may exceed the standard rent shall, subject the provisions of this Act, be as follows, that is to say: —(a) Where the landlord has since the 4th day of August 1914, incurred, or hereafter incurs, expenditure on the improvement or structural alteration of the dwelling-house (not including expenditure on decoration or repairs), an amount calculated at a rate per annum not exceeding . . . 8 per cent of the amount so expended: . . . (5) For the purposes of this section, the expression 'repairs' means any repairs required for the purpose of keeping premises in good and tenantable repair, and any premises in such a state shall be deemed to be in a reasonable state of repair, and the landlord shall be deemed to be responsible for any repairs for which the tenant is under no express liability or liability implied under s. 42 of the Landlord and Tenant Law Amendment Act (Ir.), 1860." M. was the landlord and R.the statutory tenant, under the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act, 1923, of a dwelling-house provided with an earth privy ad sole sanitary convenience. M. was served with a notice by the sanitary authority under the Public Health (Ir.) Act, 1878, informing him that a nuisance existed on the premises through the want of proper sanitary accommodation and requiring him within three months to instal a water-closet. M. installed a water-closet within this period and subsequently served notice on R. that the rent of the...