However, on the other hand, it may be argued for the landlord that the tenant is only required to vacate the premises after the transitional period, and not before that, even though the notice is served on him during the transitional period.
Section 11(1) provides that "upon the expiry of the transitional period, ... the landlord shall thereafter (a) have the right to vacant possession of the premises from the tenants without payment of any compensation."
In order to enjoy the right to vacant possession immediately after the expiry of the transitional period, i.e., on 1 January 2000 onwards, the landlord has to give notice to the tenant to vacate the premises at least three months before 1 January 2000. Only then is he able to exercise his statutory right to vacant possession of the premises immediately after 31 December 1999 under s. 11(1)(a) of the Control of Rent (Repeal) Act 1997.
In fact, that is the very intention of the Repeal Act as evident from the provision of s. 11(1)(a), which stipulates that "upon the expiry of transitional period, ... all existing tenancies ... shall cease to be in force, and the landlord shall thereafter have the right to vacant possession of the premises from the tenant without payment of any compensation.
Further Three Months Delay For Recovery Of Possession?
Assuming that the landlord has to give three months’ notice after the transitional period, it would mean that he can only serve the notice to quit on the tenant on 1 January 2000 at the earliest. If that is the case, he will only be able to recover possession of the premises on 1 April 2000. That gives rise to a further delay of three months later than his entitlement to the statutory right to vacant possession upon the expiry of the transitional period when all deemed tenancies cease to be in force.
That is to say, he is only entitled to exercise his right to vacant possession of the premises three months after the expiry of the transitional period. He is to defer enjoyment of his statutory right to vacant possession until 1 April 2000. The landlord’s entitlement to his right to vacant possession is therefore being further delayed, apart from the delayed delivery for the whole of the 28-month transitional period.
Surely, this is not the intention of the legislature. The intention of the legislature is to confer upon the landlord the right to vacant possession immediately after the expiry of the transitional period when the deemed tenancy becomes invalid automatically at the end of the 20th century.
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