1. These Rules may be cited as the Lands Tribunal (Amendment) Rules (Northern Ireland) 1997 and shall come into operation on 1st April 1997.
2. In these Rules—
“the Lands Tribunal Rules” means the Lands Tribunal Rules (Northern Ireland) 1976(1);
“the Order” means the Business Tenancies (Northern Ireland) Order 1996(2).
3.—(1) The Lands Tribunal Rules are amended in accordance with paragraphs (2) to (4) and subject to the transitional savings in rule 4.
(2) In rule 5—
(a)in paragraph (1)(a) after the words “in a register” there are inserted the words “(which may be kept by means of a computer)”;
(b)at the end there is added—
“(3) In this rule “computer” means any device for storing and processing information.”.
(3) For Part VII of the Lands Tribunal Rules there is substituted Part VII as set out in Part I of the Schedule.
(4) For Forms EA to EG in Schedule 1 to the Lands Tribunal Rules there are substituted Forms EA and EB as set out in Part II of the Schedule.
4. The amendments of the Lands Tribunal Rules mentioned in rule 3(3) and (4) shall not apply to—
(a)an application to the Lands Tribunal which falls within paragraph 3 of Schedule 2 to the Order (notice to determine served under section 4 of the Business Tenancies Act (Northern Ireland) 1964(3) or tenant’s request for new tenancy served under section 5 of that Act before commencement of the Order);
(b)an application to the Lands Tribunal which falls within paragraph 10 of Schedule 2 to the Order (compensation for improvements under Part II of the Business Tenancies Act (Northern Ireland) 1964 where notice of improvement served under section 34 of that Act before commencement of the Order);
nor shall those amendments apply to any matters connected with an application such as is mentioned in sub-paragraph (a) or (b) .
Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department of Finance and Personnel on
L.S.
James McKeown
Assistant Secretary
20th February 1997.