Vol. 488 No. 5
112 Mr. Browne (Carlow-Kilkenny) asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the plans, if any, there are to amend the Landlord and Tenant Act, 1978, in order that people who wish to avail of the regulations may do so even when a landlord refuses to co-operate. [6566/98]
I assume the Deputy's question refers to the Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) (No. 2) Act, 1978, which provides a statutory scheme for the acquisition of the fee simple by the owners of dwellinghouses. Part III of the Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) (No. 2) Act, 1978, provides a special procedure whereby owner-occupiers of dwellinghouses may acquire readily and relatively inexpensively the fee simple in their property. The Act also contains a provision for the determination of applications for the purchase of the fee simple in cases where the consent of all the necessary parties is not forthcoming. In such cases the Registrar of Titles will determine the application by arbitration. Where the Registrar is of the opinion that any party to the arbitration has behaved unreasonably and as a result caused the incurring of the cost of the arbitration he or she may direct that that party pay all or part of such cost. I should mention also that the Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) Act, 1967, contains similar provisions where the property in question is not a dwellinghouse and, accordingly, falls outside the scope of the special procedure provided for in Part III of the 1978 (No. 2) Act. I am not aware of any difficulties being experienced in this regard, but if the Deputy has any specific information which he would like to bring to my attention I will be happy to have it examined.
