COURTS PROBLEM

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 344, 4 October 1932, Page 7

COURTS PROBLEM

LANDLORD OR TENANT CONSIDERATION OF HARDSHIP CAUSE MAGISTRATES . CONCERN PROVISIONS OF ACT. A tenant, unemployed, improverished and in receipt of the dole — His landlox-d, also impoverished, pressed by creditors and faced with an overwlxelming burden of unpaid rates ... * Two people — both victims of the depx;ession — -brought togeth.er in "a court of law to decide possession of a: dwelling house, and, between them," tlxe produced clauses of the Ejectments Postponexnent Act ! Who should receive the more*sympjathetic treatment? That is the problenx that every day coxnes before magisLrates in city ' and suburbaix courts (sxys the Sydney Sun.) There are two questions they must decide — "Is the tenaxxt in inxpoverished eircumstxnees?" and "is .the landlord suff xring undue hardship ? " Uixon their answer.x hinge the right of tenancy for at least three months. No Fault of His Ov/n. The Ejectmeixt Postponexnent Act lays down that if the magistrate is satisfied that the tenaixt is in impoverished circumstances he "shall suspend execution of an order to qxiit or postpone the date of possession for a period of not less than three months from the date of the application.'.'' "Impoverished circumstances" means inability to pay rent through nnemployment and inability to obtain work "through no fault on the cccupier's part." The magistrate, howevei*, the Act goes on, "shall not grant any stay or suspension or postponexnent of possession if he. is satisfied that (a) the owner would thereby suffer undue hardship, (b) that the occupier or any person residing with him has been guilty of acts of waste depreciating the value of the dwelling house or (c) that the occupier has been convicted of using tbe premises toi' an immoral or illegal pux'pose." If tlie owner satisfies tbe magistrate on those points, said a solicitor lxe should refuse tlxe application and decide that the order be inxmediateiy enfoi'ced.

Considerate Magistrates. "The magistrate," he said, "is allowed wide discretion. under the Act. My experience has been that most • magistrates are very considerate and usually the cases are settled by some forrn of compromise." Another and more costly fox'in of obtaining ejectments is by means of a Suprexne Court writ. If this writ is served and the occupier does not file an answex* and a i declaratxon- — .which means securing | legal aid — within eight days, then I judgment goes by default, even ■ though the occupier might attend j c»urt in person. Ignorance of the I law has recently resulted in many j such ejectments taking place. ( The Ejectments Postponexnent Act j refers only to dwellings for which a I rent of less than £3 a week is paid.