Effect of valid purchase notice
196.—(1) Where a purchase notice has been served and either—
(a)a notice is served under section 193(1)(a); or
(b)where a counter-notice has been served, the objection is withdrawn, or on a reference to the Lands Tribunal, is not upheld by the Tribunal; or
(c)the period referred to in section 193(2) has expired,
the council shall, on the date of acceptance, be deemed to have entered into a contract to purchase the estate of the person who served the purchase notice in respect of which the notice is effective and that person shall, on that date, be deemed to have entered into a contract to sell that estate to the council.
(2) The amount to be paid for an estate by the council under a contract deemed to have effect under subsection (1) shall be the amount which the council would have paid for the estate if it had compulsorily acquired it on that date.
(3) Any dispute as to the amount to be paid under subsection (2) for an estate shall be determined by the Lands Tribunal.
(4) A person who has served a purchase notice in relation to an estate in land may withdraw that notice at any time before the amount to be paid for the estate has been agreed with the council or determined by the Lands Tribunal or at any time before the end of 6 weeks beginning with the date on which that amount is so agreed or determined; and where a purchase notice is withdrawn by virtue of this subsection any contract deemed to have been made under subsection (1) in consequence thereof shall be deemed not to have been made.
(5) The date for the completion of the purchase of an estate in pursuance of a contract deemed to have effect under subsection (1) shall, unless the owner of the estate and the council otherwise agree, be 3 months from the date on which they agree upon the amount to be paid for that estate or, in default of agreement on that amount, from the date on which the Lands Tribunal determines that amount.
(6) If on the date for the completion of a contract deemed to have effect under subsection (1), the council fails to pay to the claimant the amount payable to the claimant under this section, the council shall, unless that failure arises from a cause other than the council’s act or default, pay to the claimant, from that date until the date on which it pays that amount, interest on that amount at such rate as may for the time being be determined by the Department of Finance and Personnel under paragraph 18(2) of Schedule 6 to the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972 (c. 9).
(7) For the purposes of determining the amount to be paid for an estate under a contract deemed to have effect under subsection (1), for any reference in Articles 12 and 13 of the Land Compensation (Northern Ireland) Order 1982 (NI 9) to the date of acquisition or the date on which the vesting order becomes effective there shall be substituted a reference to the date of acceptance.
(8) In this section “the date of acceptance”—
(a)in a case where the Lands Tribunal, on a reference to it, does not uphold an objection, is the date of the Tribunal’s determination;
(b)in any other case, is the date on which a notice is served under section 193(1)(a) or the date on which the period referred to in section 193(2) expires, whichever is the earlier.