FAIR RENTS ACT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 182, 3 July 1936, Page 14

FAIR RENTS ACT

OWNER’S APPLICATION FAILS. PROPERTY WANTED FOR SON. DUNEDIN, Julv 2. The first case in Dunedin under the Fair Rents Act, which was passed only a few weeks a.go, was heard in the Magistrate’s Court when a houseowner proceeded against her tenant op a claim for possession of a house which she wished to place at the disposal of her son and his family. The Magistrate, Mr J. R. Bartholomew, remarked that the Act did not permit an order for possession in the circumstances unless the owner wished to occupy the house herself, and as the object of the Act was to entrench the tenant in his position he could not make the order. Plaintiff, in evidence, stated that although the defendant was a good tenant she wished to have the house for tlie use of her son, who was at present forced to occupy an unsuitable dwelling. She did not wish to use the house herself. . Counsel for the tenant contended that it was made clear in the Act that plaintiff must require the house for her own occupation before she was entitled to secure an order for possession. If an order were made defendant would suffer more hardship than plaintiff.