FAIR RENTS ACT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24736, 13 October 1941, Page 2

FAIR RENTS ACT

POSITION OF FLATS SOME TYPES EXCLUDED Decision was given by Mr F. H. Levien, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court at Auckland in a case in which he was asked to determine whether a block of flats on Queen's parade, Devonport, came under the provisions of the amendment to the Fair Rents Act, 1939. The plaintiff was Mrs Mary Atkin (Mr Fraer), and the defendant C. E. Sykes, labourer, for whom Mr Meikle, of the Fair Rents Department, appeared. The plaintiff claimed the rent already fixed at £2 2s a week and possession. These flats were the subject of a case in June. 1939. when Mr Levien held that they were not subject to the Fair Rents Act as it was at that time. The Act of 1939 has been amended and one clause of the amendment excludes from the scope of the Act al! flats originally constructed and designed for flats. Mr Fraer submitted that as the decision in June, 1939, held that these were flats originally so designed and constructed, the new Act still did not give the defendant the right to have his flat brought under the Fair Rents Act. The defence sought to establish that all flats were now subject to the Act. - The magistrate held that the flats in question were outside the amended Act and gave judgment for the plaintiff for £23 2s rent owing to date and costs and for an order for possession, the warrant to be suspended until November 1.