INTERESTING DECISION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 July 1938, Page 7

INTERESTING DECISION

CASE BEFORE MAGISTRATE’S COURT. POSSESSION OF TENEMENT. A case of some interest to landlords and tenants came before Mr H. P. Lawry, S.M., at this week’s sitting of the Masterton Magistrate’s ■ Court when Francis Naan proceeded against DeLacey King for possession of a tenement. Mr C. C. Marsack, who represented Naan, said that his client had built the house occupied by King and had lived in it until he went to Carterton to enter business. When he returned to Masterton he rented a house,in which he had lived for some considerable time. Recently he decided to return to his own house but King was unwilling to give up possession. • Naan had arranged that the house he was occupying would be made available for King, but when Mrs King inspected it she objected on the grounds that there was no hot water service and that the house had the borer. As Naan had provided suitable alternative accommodation for King, continued Mr Marsack, he was entitled to an order for possession of his own house. There was no question of nonpayment of rent, but the attitude of the tenant amounted to saying that the rented house offered was good enough for his landlord to live in, but was not good enough for him. ■ Mr G. D. Wilson, representing King, said that an order could not be made in the circumstances under the Fair Rents Act 1936 unless it could be proved that the hardship inflicted on the landlord by refusing the order was greater than that inflicted on the tenant by granting it. Mr Lawry referred to section 63 of the Finance Act 1937, which amended the Fair Rents Act and dealt with the offering of suitable alternative accommodation for the tenant. If suitable alternative accommodation was offered the provision regarding the degree of hardship did not apply and Mi- Lawry held that in this case the house offered was suitable and that the tenant had no reasonable grounds for refusing to accept the house offered. Consequently the landlord was entitled to possession. An order was made for possession within seven days.