MORTGAGEES’ BURDENS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19477, 21 December 1925, Page 2

MORTGAGEES’ BURDENS

ONE MORE ADDED TO THE LIST. POWER BOARD’S PRIVILEGES. A good many things are saddled ,on the venturesome mortgagee, and now one more burden has been added to the list; if a mortgagor fails to pay an electric power board for installing light or power on his premises the board can come on the mortgagee. Cases have actually occurred where properties have fallen into the hands of the mortgagee, and the latter has discovered a fairly heavy bill for electricity on to the place, the owner having failed to pay up. Already the mortgagee comes second to claims for rates, and formerly he was responsible for claims under the Income Tax Act, no matter how long they had been running, but that little injustice has been remedied by amending legislation which requires the Commissioner to register liis claim within six months, so that it will be shown on the title deeds, and tho man lending money on the place will know what he is dealing with. Apparently the law thus placing the electric power boards upon such very favourable terms slipped on t.> the Statute Books in a very unobtrusive manner, for no protest was raised against it during its passage through the House. That it was not noticed is shown by the fact that one lender, when he found himself saddled with a power board’s claims on a property where he had advanced money, started out to contest the matter, but upon going more fullly into the matter found that the law was perfectly clear and that power boards w r ere in a very enviable position as far as mortgaged property was concerned. People who lend money say that no I other trading concern is in such a favourable position as these power boards, and it is as well that their privileges in this respect should be well known by people dealing in property. There is a good deal to b-' said for the matter as far as the power boards are concerned, but tho lenders of money consider that these liens should be registered against tho title.