Housing Act 1996

9 (1) Section 26 (application to court where relevant landlords cannot be found) shall be amended as follows.

(2) In subsection (1)(b), after “section 9(2)” there shall be inserted “or (2A)”.

(3) In subsection (3), after “If” there shall be inserted “, in a case to which section 9(2) applies,”.

(4) After that subsection there shall be inserted—

“(3A) Where in a case to which section 9(2A) applies—

(a) not less than two-thirds of the qualifying tenants of flats contained in any premises to which this Chapter applies desire to make a claim to exercise the right to collective enfranchisement in relation to those premises, and

(b) paragraph (b) of subsection (1) does not apply, but

(c) a copy of a notice of that claim cannot be given in accordance with Part II of Schedule 3 to any person to whom it would otherwise be required to be so given because he cannot be found or his identity cannot be ascertained,

the court may, on the application of the qualifying tenants in question, make an order dispensing with the need to give a copy of such a notice to that person.”

(5) In subsection (4), for “or (2)” there shall be substituted “, (2) or (3A)”.

(6) In subsection (7), after “(2)” there shall be inserted “or (3A)”.