Part 1Forfeiture and relief

Part 1—Forfeiture and relief Division 1—Recovery of premises 4—Proceedings by landlord for non-payment of rent (1) In every case between a landlord and tenant, if— (a) one half-year's rent is in arrear; and (b) the landlord has by law the right to re-enter for non-payment thereof, the landlord may bring an action for recovery of the demised premises without making any formal demand for the rent or any re-entry, and the service of the writ in that action shall have the effect of a demand and re-entry. (2) If the lessee or his assignees or other person claiming or deriving under the lease permits and suffers judgment to be recovered in the action and execution to be executed thereon without paying the rent and arrears together with full costs and without proceeding for relief on equitable grounds within six months after such execution executed, the said lessee, his assignees, and all other persons claiming under the lease shall be barred and foreclosed from all relief or remedy legal or equitable other than by appeal, and the landlord shall thereafter hold the demised premises discharged from the lease. (3) Nothing in this section shall bar the right of any mortgagee of the lease or any part thereof who is not in possession, if such mortgagee within six months after such execution executed pays all rent in arrear, and all costs and damages sustained by the landlord, and performs all the covenants and agreements which on the part and behalf of the first lessee are and ought to be performed. 5—Tenant, paying all rent, proceedings to cease If the tenant or his assignee at any time before the hearing of the action for recovery of the land pays or tenders to the landlord, or his executors, or administrators, or his or their solicitor in the action or pays into the court all the rent and arrears due at the time of such payment, together with the costs, all further proceedings in the action shall thereupon cease and be discontinued. 6—Damages for mesne profits (1) On the hearing of any action brought by a landlord against a tenant for recovery of the demised premises the judge, if satisfied that the defendant has been served with due notice of the hearing, shall, whether the defendant appears on the trial or not, permit the plaintiff, after proof of his right to recover possession of the whole or of any part of the demised land, to adduce evidence of the mesne profits thereof, which accrued or might have accrued from the day of the expiration or determination of the tenant's interest in the land, down to the time of the judgment given in the action, or to some preceding day to be specially mentioned therein; and judgment shall be given upon the whole matter, both as to the recovery of the whole or any part of the land, and also as to the amount of the damages to be paid for such mesne profits; and in such case the landlord shall have judgment, not only for the recovery of possession and costs, but also for the mesne profits found. (2) Nothing in this section shall be construed to bar any landlord from bringing any action for the mesne profits which accrue from the time of the judgment or the day so specified therein, down to the day of the delivery of possession of the premises recovered in the action. 7—Saving of former remedies Nothing in the preceding three sections shall prejudice or affect any other right of action or remedy which landlords possess in any of the cases provided for, in these sections, except as therein expressly enacted. 8—Notice of writs by lessee to landlord Every tenant to whom there is delivered any writ for the recovery of the premises demised to or held by him, or to whose knowledge any such writ comes, shall (except where the landlord is the plaintiff named in the writ) forthwith give notice thereof to the landlord or his agent; and if he fails to do so shall be liable to forfeit to the person of whom he holds the premises an amount equal to the value of three years improved or rack rent of the premises, to be recovered by action in any court having jurisdiction in respect of claims for that amount. Division 2—Relief against forfeiture 9—Relief against forfeiture for non-payment of rent (1) In the case of any action in the Supreme Court for recovery of land on forfeiture for non-payment of rent, the court or a judge may, upon summons, give relief on equitable grounds in a summary manner, up to and within the same time after execution executed, and subject to the same terms and conditions in all respects as to payment of rent, costs, and otherwise, as would have applied in the Supreme Court in its equitable jurisdiction before the passing of the Supreme Court Act 1878. (2) If the lessee, his executors, administrators, or assigns are so relieved, they shall hold the demised lands according to the terms of the lease and without any new lease. (3) If such relief is granted, the court or judge shall direct a minute thereof to be made, by endorsement on the lease or otherwise. 10—No re-entry till notice to tenant to remedy breach A right of re-entry or forfeiture under any proviso or stipulation in a lease for a breach of any covenant or condition in the lease shall not be enforceable by action or otherwise, unless and until— (a) the lessor serves on the lessee a notice specifying the particular breach complained of, and, if the breach is capable of remedy, requiring the lessee to remedy the breach, and in any case requiring the lessee to make compensation in money for the breach; and (b) the lessee fails within a reasonable time thereafter to remedy the breach, if it is capable of remedy, and to make reasonable compensation in money to the satisfaction of the lessor for the breach. 11—Court or judge may grant relief (1) Where a lessor is proceeding by action or otherwise to enforce such a right of re-entry or forfeiture the lessee may, in the lessor's action (if any), or in any action brought by himself, apply to the Supreme Court or a judge thereof for relief, and the court or judge may grant or refuse relief as such court or judge, having regard to the proceedings and conduct of the parties under the last preceding section and to all other circumstances, may think fit. (2) If the court or judge grants relief it or he may grant it on such terms (if any) as to costs, expenses, damages, compensation, penalty, or otherwise, including the granting of an injunction to restrain any like breach in the future, as the court or judge in the circumstances of each case thinks fit. 12—Interpretation and application of preceding sections (1) For the purposes of the two preceding sections a lease includes an original lease or a derivative under-lease, or a grant securing a rent by condition, and a lessee includes an original lessee or derivative under-lessee, and the heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns of a lessee, also a grantee under such a grant as aforesaid, his heirs and assigns; and a lessor includes an original lessor or derivative under-lessor, and his heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns, also a grantor as aforesaid, and his heirs and assigns. (2) The said sections shall apply, although the provision or stipulation under which the right of re-entry or forfeiture accrues is inserted in the lease in pursuance of any Act. (3) For the purposes of the said sections a lease limited to continue as long only as the lessee abstains from committing a breach of covenant shall be and take effect as a lease to continue for any longer term for which it could subsist, but determinable by a proviso for re-entry on such a breach. (4) The said sections shall extend to a covenant or condition against assigning, under-letting, parting with the possession, or disposing of the land leased, when the consent of the lessor has been vexatiously or capriciously withheld. (5) The said sections shall not apply to Crown leases nor affect the law relating to re-entry and forfeiture for non-payment of rent. (6) The said sections shall apply to leases made either before or after the commencement of this Act, and shall have effect notwithstanding any stipulation to the contrary.