THE RENTS ACT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 18, 19 August 1916, Page 3

THE RENTS ACT.

(Taranaki Herald.) A correspondent writes asking lor enlightenment with regard to some of the provisions of the Act recently passed relating to the regulation ol rents. The principal points upon which information is desired are: (1) How is the rent fixed? £2) For how long is lent so fixed to be maintained? (3) Is the Bill retrospective with regard to -the amount ol rent, li.e., is rent which has already been paid in excess ol what is provided in the'Act recoverable? (4) What are the provisions for (or against) ejecting a tenant? The answers are: (1) What the Act calls standard rent means the rent at which a house was let on August 3, 1914., or, if not lot then, the rent at which it was last let before that date, or, if it was first let after August 3, 1911, the rent at which it was first let. (2) The standard rent shall remain in force during the continuance of the war and for six months thereafter, when the Act shall be deemed to be repealed. (3) Where the rent of a house has been increased above the standard rent, the amount by which the rent payable exceeds the amount which would have been payable bad the increase not been made shall, notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary, be coverable, provided that (a) this pari >of the Act shall not apply to any rent which accrued due befoie the passing of the Act; and (b) wherthe landlord has since the commencement of the war incurred, ci during the continuance of the Act incurs, expenditure on the, improvement or structural alteration ol «.*. house (not including decoration or repairs), an increase of rent at a rate not exceeding 8 per cent, per annum on the amount so expended shall nou be deemed to he an increase for the purposes of the Act. (4) No order for the recovery of possession of a house or for the ejectment of a tenant therefrom shall be made so long as the tenant continues to pay rent at the agreed rate as modified by .the Act and performs the other conditions of the tenancy.-