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Law of Property Act 2000
123Provisions as to covenants to repair
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123 Provisions as to covenants to repair
(1) Subject to subsection (2), damages for breach of a covenant,
obligation or agreement, whether express or implied or general or
specific, to:
(a) keep or put premises in good repair during the currency of a
lease; or
(b) leave or put premises in good repair at the termination of a
lease,
are not to exceed the amount (if any) by which the value of the
reversion (whether immediate or not) in the premises is diminished
owing to the breach of the covenant, obligation or agreement.
(2) Damages are not recoverable for a breach of a covenant, obligation
or agreement to leave or put premises in good repair at the
termination of a lease if it is shown that at or shortly after the
termination of the lease:
(a) the premises, in whatever state of repair they might be, would
be or have been pulled down; or
(b) structural alterations would be or have been made to the
premises that would render valueless the repairs covered by
the covenant, obligation or agreement.
Law of Property Act 2000 81
(3) A right of re-entry or forfeiture for a breach of a covenant, obligation
or agreement referred to in subsection (1) or (2) is not enforceable
unless the lessor proves that:
(a) a notice has been served on the lessee in accordance with
section 137 and the service of the notice was known at the
time of or shortly after the service of the notice by:
(i) the lessee;
(ii) an under-lessee holding under an under-lease which
reserved a nominal reversion only to the lessee; or
(iii) the person who last paid the rent due under the lease
either on the person's own behalf or as agent for the
lessee or under-lessee; and
(b) a period of time reasonably sufficient to enable the execution
of the repairs has lapsed from the time when the fact of the
service of the notice became known to the lessee, under-
lessee or person and the exercise of the right of re-entry or
forfeiture.
(4) If a notice referred to in subsection (3)(a) is sent by post in a
registered letter addressed to a person at the person's last known
place of residence in or out of the Territory and the letter is not
returned through the post office undelivered, the person is, for the
purposes of that provision, unless the contrary is proven, to be
taken to have had knowledge of the fact that the notice had been
served from the time when the letter would have been delivered in
the ordinary course of post.
(5) This section applies to leases whether created before or after the