The Gazette 1974

ent of a rapid liquidation, its accounts would have

to be consolidated with the public company's accounts,

formally, in regard to the premises in course of com-

pletion an institution's solicitor is not too concerned to

Make any unusual queries about planning, provided

that he is satisfied that the buildings have been built

M accordance with the appropriate planning and buil-

d i n

g bye-laws.

As regards Office Buildings, the full premises in-

cluding car parks should normally be held under full

repairing and insuring leases. In the case of multi-

Jottings, arrangements by way of service charges should

6e imposed on all tenants, in order to make provision

J°r the cost (1) of maintaining the structure of the

Building and (2) of replacing lifts, central heating sys-

tem and essential machinery. Each tenant must contri-

bute his share of the insurance premium.

There are more difficult problems to meet in the case

Industrial Buildings. One must ensure that the divid-

Mg walls are party walls in the case of large units and

'hat liability for their maintenance has been shared

du a l ly between the tenants. The maintenance of pri-

ate roadways on industrial estates will have to be

°nsidered, including the provision of a service charge

amongst the tenants.

In the case of Shopping Centres, the landlord will

nave to decide at an early stage whether he will give

*clusive franchises for particular trades to individual

M°p tenants, but the current trend appears to be for a

Jtoe-for-all situation permitting traders to open up in

Mtoct competition with one another. It is also necessary

M a sizeable shopping centre to establish a Tenants'

Association similar to a co-operative to promote the

ntre as a whole in respect of problems like cleansing,

Car

parking and security. In the case of Blocks of Flats,

Mese may in general be looked upon as an office block

occupied by a large number of tenants, as long as the

teases are well drawn, and the owner chooses the tenants

th care.

. There are also many intricate problems possibly aris-

from value-added tax.

. Mr. Meredith emphasised that he had drafted addi-

tional requisitions on title, mainly relating to the stan-

dard requirements raised by solicitors for mortgagees;

Mese are fully set out in Appendix A. Mr. Meredith

plained the necessity for these additional requisitions

1,1

detail.

Mr. Curran, in an Appendix, set out in an orderly

hion a useful check list of instructions in convey-

°ing matters, as well as the points of procedure to be

oted in the case of a purchase and of a sale. He stressed

Mat it would be most useful for solicitors to read

^loeran's Practical

Conveyancing.

Sunday afternoon,

Mr. Thomas Fitzpatrick,

Soli-

a n

d Minister for Lands, delivered a lecture on

present and Future Trends in Land Law in Ireland".

said that the European Communities Acts of 1972

nd of 1973 make provisions to enable Ireland to ful-

M obligations arising from membership. The Treaty of

°Me provides that the Council shall issue Directives

t o

enable nationals of one member State to acquire and

land and buildings in another member State pro-

dded the common agricultural policy is not infringed.

Mdce 22 December 1972 Regulations have been made

pinging the various Directives relating to agricultural

a n

d into force. Broadly under the Land Act, 1965,

permission will not be granted to foreigners to purchase

land in order to engage in forms of production in

competition with Irish farmers. There is a much wider

draft Directive by which nationals of other member

States would be allowed to purchase agricultural land

on the same conditions as Irish citizens but we would

try to enforce a lengthy transitional period before it

comes into force.

As regards agricultural leases, this should present no

problem, as the present tendency has been in favour of

full ownership. Longer leases can be granted with the

consent of the Land Commission, and the tendency

towards granting long leases has grown considerably

recently. There are two developments, however, which

may tend to hinder this.

(1) It is intended to introduce legislation to imple-

ment a Directive which encourages farmers in the 55

to 69 age group, who wish to leave and sell their farms,

to receive a special incentive for retirement.

(2) Ma c ra na Feirme presented a Report of Farm

Inheritance and Succession to the Minister last Novem-

ber. In this Report, it is suggested that the owner should

lease part of the farm to his son for a minimum of 12

years, after which time legal ownership would be trans-

ferred to the son, who would receive the stock and

machinery free.

Having traced briefly the history of land in Ireland

the Minister emphasised that initially, after 1881, the

Land Commission was (i) a rent fixing body later devel-

oped by law; (ii) a tenant-purchase agency for the

conversion of tenants into proprietors, and (iii) a great

purchaser and distributor of land in carrying out land

reform. The total area distributed under all Land Acts

to date exceeds

million acres.

The Land Commission now consists of one Judicial

Commissioner, and not more than four lay Commis-

sioners. The Judicial Commissioner alone, as an Appeals

Tribunal, deals mainly with price appeals; the Commis-

sioners have sole power to determine matters relating

to (i) the person from whom the land is to be acquired;

(ii) the actual land to be acquired; (iii) the price to be

paid; and (iv) the persons to whom the land shall be

allotted. Since 1939, an attempt has been made to

resettle 35,000 acres per a nnum amongst tenants. Since

1962, a sizeable farm unit consists of 40 to 45 acres of

good arable land, as compared with 20 to 25 acres

before that. More details are contained in the pamphlet

The Land Problem in Ireland and its Settlement,

pre-

pared by the present Secretary, Mr. O'Brien.

As regards compulsory acquisition, the Land Com-

mission has been invested with extensive powers to

acquire lands for the purpose of relieving congestion,

subject to the limitation that the determination as to

the lands to be acquired is a matter exclusively within

the province of the Commissioners. In order to over-

come various legal decisions, the Land Act, 1965, intro-

duced important new provisions aimed at strengthening

the acquisition and resumption powers of the Land

Commission. The area acquired compulsorily in recent

times comes to about 10,000 acres per year. Land

acquired compulsorily has to be paid in La nd Bonds,

but there has been much criticism recently of the fall

in value of the Bonds due mainly to rising interest rates.

Th e re is no immediate prospect of an improvement in

this regard.

100