Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1944

7 Extension of time for recovery of expenses of drainage works or of improving ways over fen-land

(1) The following enactments (which enable expenses incurred under the authority of the Minister in the execution of drainage works or in the improvement of ways over fen-lands to be recovered from owners of land upon whom notice is served within one year from the-completion of the work), that is to say—

(a) subsection (2) of section two of the Agriculture (Miscellaneous War Provisions) (No. 2) Act, 1940 ; and

(b) paragraph 1 of the Third Schedule to the Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1941 ;

shall have effect as if for the words " one year " there were in each case substituted the words " two years ".

(2) The foregoing provisions of this section shall apply in relation to expenses incurred before the date of the commencement of this Act notwithstanding that the work was completed more than one year before that date.

Provided that—

(a) any notice served by virtue of this subsection, and any charge imposed by virtue of any such notice on the land specified therein, shall be void as against a purchaser of the land in pursuance of an agreement entered into more than one year after the completion of the work and before the first day of May, nineteen hundred and forty-four, or any person claiming through or under such a purchaser, or any agent for any such purchaser or person, unless the notice is served before the completion of the purchase ; and

(b) subsection (2) of section seven of the Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1941, and, so far as it applies that subsection, subsection (2) of section eight of that Act (which authorise an owner of fen-land from whom any sum is recoverable in respect of expenses incurred in connection with the improvement of a way over the land to recover interest on that sum from the tenant of the land) shall not authorise the recovery from a tenant of interest on any sum recoverable from the owner by reason of a notice served by virtue of this subsection, if the tenancy was created in pursuance of an agreement entered into more than one year after the completion of the work and before the first day of May, nineteen hundred and forty-four.

In this subsection the expression " purchaser" means, in relation to any land, any person (including a mortgagee or lessee) who, whether before or after the commencement of this Act, acquires for money or money's worth any interest in that land or in a charge on that land.

(3) The provisions of the last foregoing subsection shall not be taken to affect the operation as to any charge imposed as aforesaid of the [15 & 16 Geo. 5. c. 22.] Land Charges Act, 1925 (which provides among other things that certain charges shall be void as against a purchaser unless registered in accordance with that Act).