Improvements
Improvements
An improvement means any addition to or alteration of the buildings comprised in the tenement and includes any structure erected on the tenement which is ancillary or subsidiary to those buildings and also includes the installation in the tenement of conduits for the supply of water, gas or electricity but does not include work consisting only of repairing, painting and decorating, or any of them.
Where a tenant wishes to make an improvement, it may serve an improvement notice on the landlord setting out the works, the estimated cost verified by surveyor, architect or contractor and copy planning permission. Where the tenant does so, the landlord may within one month serve notice consenting to the improvement or agreeing to undertake the works in consideration of a specified rent increase or rent increase to be agreed by Court or it may issue a notice objecting to the works. If the landlord does not respond, the tenant is entitled to execute the works within one year.
An improvement objection may be served only where the grounds of the objection are that the tenant holds the tenement otherwise than under a lease for a term of which at least five years are unexpired at the time when the improvement notice is served, and that the tenant would, on any of the ground specified would not be entitled under to a new tenancy.
If the landlord agrees to undertake the works, the tenant may accept the landlord’s undertaking do so, withdraw the notice or object to the rent increase. Where this does not happen the landlord must complete works within six months. Where an objection is served, the tenant may either withdraw the notice or apply to Court.
Superior Landlord Involved
A landlord may be entitled to compensation from his immediate head landlord for improvement made by a subtenant where the landlord has given consideration to such subtenant by rent reduction or compensation.
Where an improvement notice is served in a case in which the landlord holds the tenement—
- under a lease for a life or lives in being (either without a term of years or with a concurrent term of which less than twenty-five years are unexpired), or
- under a lease for a term of which less than twenty-five years are unexpired at the date of the service of such notice, or
- under a tenancy from year to year or any lesser tenancy,
the landlord shall, within one week, serve the notice or a copy thereof on his immediate superior landlord, endorsed with a statement of the date on which the notice was served on him, and the superior landlord may, within one month after the date of the service of the improvement notice by the tenant on the landlord, serve on the landlord and on the tenant either an improvement consent or an improvement objection.
Every superior landlord on whom an improvement notice or a copy thereof is served under this section (including this subsection) and who holds the tenement under a lease of which less than twenty-five years are unexpired at the date of such service, or under a tenancy from year to year or any lesser tenancy, hall, within one week, serve the improvement notice or a copy thereof as endorsed upon his next superior landlord, and that superior landlord shall have the like right of serving an improvement consent or an improvement objection as the first-mentioned superior landlord has under this section.
The Court may authorise the improvement or reject the application. An improvement objection may be served by the landlord only on the basis that the tenant holds the premises under a lease with less than five years left or the tenant would not be entitled to renewal. If the improvement notice is not given, the tenant risks losing entitlement to compensation for improvements on leaving the tenancy.
Statutory Requirements
Where a sanitary authority or a housing authority serves under the relevant legislation, a notice on the tenant of a tenement requiring him to execute an improvement, the tenant shall, within three days, serve on the landlord a notice in writing stating the fact of the service of the notice by that authority and stating the material portions of that notice.
Where a work notice is served, the landlord may, within three days, serve on the tenant a notice; a work undertaking in the prescribed form undertaking to execute the work in consideration of either (as the landlord states in the notice) a specified increase of rent or an increase of rent to be fixed by the Court.
The service of a work undertaking shall have the same effect as the service on the tenant of an improvement undertaking, and the provisions of this Act in relation to an improvement undertaking shall apply accordingly.
A copy of a work undertaking may be served by the tenant on the authority and thereupon the obligation to comply with the notice served by the authority and the liability for failure to comply with it shall become the obligation and liability of the landlord in exoneration of the tenant. Where a work notice is served and, within three days, the landlord does not serve a work undertaking, the tenant shall be entitled to execute the improvement mentioned in the notice by the authority which occasioned the work notice.
Where an improvement notice is served and, within one month, the landlord does not serve an improvement undertaking and neither the landlord nor any superior landlord serves an improvement objection, the tenant shall be entitled to execute at any time within one year after such service (whether an improvement consent has or has not been served by the landlord or superior landlord) the improvement specified in the improvement notice in accordance in all respects with the notice.
Rights of parties on service of improvement undertaking.
Where an improvement notice is served and, within one month, the landlord serves an improvement undertaking and no superior landlord serves an improvement objection the tenant may, by notice in writing served on the landlord within fourteen days after the service of the undertaking, either accept it or withdraw the improvement notice or, where the undertaking specifies an increase of rent, object to its amount.
Where the tenant does not serve a notice or accepts the improvement undertaking, the landlord shall, as soon as may be, and in any case not later than six months after the expiration of such fourteen days, execute and complete at his own expense and in accordance with the improvement undertaking the improvement mentioned therein and may for that purpose enter on the tenement at all reasonable times and there do all things necessary for or incidental to the execution of the improvement.
If the tenant withdraws the improvement notice, that notice shall be deemed never to have been served. Where the tenant objects to the amount of the increase of rent specified in the improvement undertaking, then—
- the landlord and the tenant may either fix by agreement the amount of the increase of rent or agree that its amount shall be fixed by the Court, and thereupon the improvement undertaking shall have effect in accordance with that agreement and be deemed to have been duly accepted by the tenant, or
- either the landlord or the tenant may apply to the Court and, upon the hearing of the application, the Court may, as it thinks proper, either fix the amount of the increase of rent or deem the improvement undertaking to be an improvement objection and deal with it accordingly or make such other order as justice may require.
Where the improvement undertaking is, by its terms or by subsequent agreement, made subject to an increase of rent of an amount to be fixed by the Court, the landlord or the tenant may, when the improvement has been duly executed by the landlord, apply to the Court to fix the amount of the increase of rent.
Upon the completion of the improvement by the landlord in accordance with the improvement undertaking a, the rent payable by the tenant to the landlord shall, from the date of completion, be increased in accordance with the undertaking or the order of the Court (as the case may be), and any dispute as to the amount or commencement of or otherwise in relation to the increase shall be determined by the Court on the application of the landlord or the tenant.
Where the landlord is thereby bound to execute the improvement in accordance with the improvement undertaking but refuses or fails to execute and complete it within the time limited in that behalf by this section, the tenant may apply to the Court and the Court may make such order in the matter as justice may require.
Rights of parties on service of improvement objection.
Where an improvement notice is served and, within one month, either the landlord or a superior landlord serves an improvement objection, the tenant may, save as is otherwise provided in this section, within one month after the service of the improvement objection, either by notice in writing served on the landlord or on the landlord and the superior landlord (as the case may require) withdraw the improvement notice, or apply to the Court. Where a tenant so withdraws an improvement notice, the notice shall be deemed never to have been served.
On an application,the Court shall make an improvement order authorising the tenant to make the improvement in accordance with the improvement notice either without modification or with such modifications as the Court thinks proper and, if the Court so thinks fit, specifying a time within which the improvement shall be completed. The Court shall reject the application if it is satisfied that the tenant holds the tenement otherwise than under a lease for a term of which at least five years were unexpired at the time when the improvement notice was served and would, on any of the statutory grounds would not be entitled to a new tenancy.
Where an improvement order has been made and the tenant refuses or fails to execute and complete in accordance with the order the improvement thereby authorised within the time limited in that behalf by the order or, where no such time is so limited, within a reasonable time, the landlord or any superior landlord may apply to the Court and, on the hearing of the application, the Court may make such order as justice may require.
Improvement certificate.
Where—
- 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
- 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.
Where an improvement certificate is applied for 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.
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.
here, 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 or a housing authority, 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.
A sanitary improvement certificate shall, as against the landlord of the tenement, be prima facie evidence of the matters which it purports to certify.
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.