Law of Property Act 1922

65 Amendment of section 25 and repeal of section 26 of the Act of 1882; and power to raise' money for improvements, and for the court or the trustees to impose conditions for repayment of money applied for improvements.

(1) Improvements authorised by the Settled Land Act, 1882, shall include the following, namely :—

(i) Residential houses for land or mineral agents, managers, clerks, bailiffs, woodmen, gamekeepers and other persons employed on the settled land, or in connexion with the management or development thereof:

(ii) Any offices, workshops and other buildings of a permanent nature required in connexion with the management or development of the settled land or any part thereof :

(iii) The development of the settled land, or any part thereof as a building estate, and the erection, building, making, and laying out for that purpose of dwelling houses, shops, buildings for religious, educational, literary, scientific, or public purposes, market places, market houses, places of amusement and. entertainment, parks, squares gardens, grounds for recreation, exercise, or games, or other open spaces, roads, streets, paths, sewers, drains, gasworks, electric light or power works, or any other works necessary or proper in connexion with the objects aforesaid :

(iv) Restoration or reconstruction of buildings damaged or destroyed by dry rot:

(v) Structural additions and alterations to buildings reasonably required, whether the buildings are intended to be let or not, or are already let:

(vi) Boring for water and other preliminary works in connexion therewith:

(vii) Subject to provision for the repayment of the capital money expended being made in manner hereinafter provided, heating, hydraulic or electric power apparatus for buildings, and engines, pumps, lifts, rams, boilers, flues, and other works required or used in connexion therewith :

(viii) Subject to provision for the repayment of the capital money expended being made in manner hereinafter provided, engine houses, engines, gasometers, dynamos, accumulators, cables, pipes, wiring, switchboards, plant and other works required for the installation of electric, gas, or other artificial light, in connexion with any principal mansion house, or other house or buildings; but shall not include electric lamps, gas fittings, or decorative fittings required in any such house or building ;

(ix) Subject to provision for the repayment of the capital money expended being made in manner hereafter provided, steam rollers, traction engines, motor lorries and moveable machinery for farming or other purposes.

(2) Where money is required for the purpose of paying for any improvement authorised by the Acts, or by the settlement, the tenant for life may raise the money so required and the costs of raising the same in the manner provided by section eleven of the Settled Land Act, 1890 (as amended), in regard to money thereby authorised to be raised, and the money raised under this subsection shall be capital money for the purpose aforesaid, and may be paid or applied accordingly.

(3) Capital money arising under the Acts may be applied in or towards payment for any improvement authorised by the Acts or by the settlement, without any scheme for the execution of the improvement being first submitted for approval to, or approved by, the trustees of the settlement or the court.

(4) Where the capital money to be expended is in the hands of the trustees of the settlement, they may apply that money in or towards payment for the whole or any part of any work or operation comprised in the improvement, on—

(i) A certificate to be made by a competent engineer or able practical surveyor employed independently of the tenant for life, certifying that the work or operation comprised in the improvement, or some specific part thereof, has been properly executed, and what amount is properly payable in respect thereof, which certificate shall be conclusive in favour of the trustees as an authority and discharge for any payment made by them in pursuance thereof; or

(ii) An order of the Court directing or authorising the trustees so to apply a specified portion of the capital money:

Provided that, in the case of improvements not authorised by the Settled Land Acts, 1882 and 1890, or by the settlement, the trustees shall be entitled, if they shall think fit, before they make any such application of capital money to require that that money, or any part thereof, shall be repaid to them, out of the income of the settled land by not more than fifty half-yearly instalments, the first of such instalments to be paid or to be deemed to have become payable at the expiration of six months from the date when the work or operation, in payment for which the money is to be applied, was completed.

(5) The tenant for life is by this section authorised to create out of the settled land, or any part thereof, a yearly rentcharge in favour of the trustees of the settlement sufficient in amount to discharge the said half-yearly instalments.

(6) Where the capital money to be expended is in Court, the court may, if it thinks fit, on a report or certificate of the Minister, or of a competent engineer or able practical surveyor approved by the court, or on such other evidence as the court shall think sufficient, make such order and give such directions as it thinks fit for the application of the money, or any part thereof, in or towards payment for the whole or any part of any work or operation comprised in the improvement.

(7) Where the court authorises capital money to be applied in payment for any improvement or intended improvement not authorised by the Settled Land Acts, 1882 and 1890, or by the settlement, the court may, as a condition of making the order, require that the capital money or any part thereof shall be repaid to the trustees of the settlement out of the income of the settled land by a fixed number of periodical instalments to be paid at the times appointed by the court, and may require that any incumbrancer of the life estate shall be served with notice of the proceedings.

(8) Where any such order is made, the settled land shall stand charged with the payment to the trustees of the settlement of a yearly rentcharge sufficient in amount to discharge the periodical instalments, and the rentcharge shall accrue from day to day, and be payable at the times appointed for payment of the periodical instalments, and shall have effect as if limited by the settlement prior to the estate of the tenant for life, and the trustees of the settlement shall have all statutory and other powers for recovery thereof.

(9) A rentcharge created by or under this section shall not be redeemed out of capital money, but may be overreached in like manner as if the same were limited by the settlement, and shall cease if and when the land affected by the improvement ceases to be settled or is sold or exchanged, but if part of the land affected remains subject to the settlement the rentcharge shall remain in force in regard to the settled land.

(10) All money received by the trustees of the settlement in respect of any instalments under this section shall be held by them as capital money arising from freehold land under the settlement, unless the court otherwise directs.

(11) Section twenty-six of the Settled Land Act, 1882, is hereby repealed.

(12) The improvements authorised by this section shall, for the purposes of the [61 & 62 Vict. c. 55.] Universities and College Estates Act, 1898, be deemed to be inserted in the Third Schedule to that Act.