asked the Minister for Justice if he will amend the practice where some tenants are obliged to act as unpaid rent collectors in collecting ground rent from their neighbours on behalf of absentee landlords; if statistics are available on the number of such cases; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - Collection of Ground Rents.
378.
The obligation of certain tenants to collect ground rents from other persons and to pay those rents to their ground landlord is one that arises only on foot of private contractual arrangements made between the persons concerned or their predecessors in title. I have no information as to the number of these cases nor as to the extent to which absentee landlords are involved.
The matter was adverted to by the Ground Rents Commission in their Report on Ground Rents (Pr. 7783) and section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) Act, 1967, gives effect to the recommendations of the Commission in that regard. The provisions of section 11 enable most of the persons who are under an obligation of the kind in question to rid themselves of that obligation if they wish to do so. Where the relevant lease is a “building lease” or a “proprietary lease”, section 11 of the 1967 Act gives the person concerned the right to have the total rent apportioned so that each tenant becomes directly liable to the ground landlord for his share only of the rent. Section 44 of the Landlord and Tenant (Amendment) Bill, 1979, which is at present before the House, proposes to extend that right to lessees under every known type of ground rent lease. Such tenants would, of course, also have the right to acquire the fee simple under the Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) (No. 2) Act, 1978.