DATE FIXED FOR TERMINATION OF WAR TENANCIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 April 1947, Page 8

DATE FIXED FOR TERMINATION OF WAR TENANCIES

(P.AJ WELLINGTON, April 17. The effect of an Order-in-Council gazetted tonight concerning the Tenancy Agreements (End of War) Order, 1947, is that in respect of all tenancy agreements for the duration of the wax- oi’ a similarly defined term, either party to the agreement will be entitled to terminate the agreement one month after May 1. Leases for an indefinite term are void for uncertainty, and it has been held by authorities in England that a lease for the duration of the war was void under this rule. To meet this position special legislation was passed in England, and has been followed by New Zealand to prevent such difficulties arising. The validation of the War-Time Lease Emergency Regulations, 1945, provided that any tenancy agreement for the duration of the war or a similarly defined term should have effect as if it granted tenancy for a term of 10 years, subject to the right exercisable by either party to the agreement to discontinue the tenancy if the war ended before the expiration of the tgrm by ,at least one month’s notice in writing, given after the end of the war. The regulations further provided that an order-in-council might be issued declaring what date was to be treated for the purpose of any tenancy agreement as the date for the end of the war, and of hostilities, and of the emergency. Until that date was fixed all tenancy agreements for the duration of the war continued to run.

The Tenancy Agreements (End of War) Order, 1947, now gazetted, fixes the date as May 1, and operates only if the parties have not themselves provided for another date in the agreement. •