Rent Tribunals
SIR,—In his commendably short letter " A Landlord " has contrived to introduce quite a number of factual errors, evidently due to an acquain- tance with the Rents Acts which is, if I may so &scribe it, highly selective.
(1) Rent Tribunals have not "assumed power to deal with un- furnished rooms." This power was given to them by the Landlord and Tenant (Rent Control) Act 1949, and extends only to rooms which neither were let before the War nor form part of houses which were let before the War. Unfurnished rooms outside that category are still subject to the Rent Restriction Acts 1920-1939.
(2) Tenants of unfurnished rooms are not given extension of tenure by Rent Tribunals. Applications for security of tenure are possible
only in the case of premises coming within the Furnished Houses (Rent Control) Act 1946, i.e., those let with furniture and, or services. (3) " A Landlord" complains that " owners of unfurnished property of the letting kind are entirely prevented from increasing their rents beyond the kmounts paid in 1939." But, in assessing a rent under the above named Act of 1949, the Rent Tribunal's function is to determine what is a reasonable rent under all the circumstances, and the Tribunal is by no means limited to the 1939 standard.—Yours obediently, HARRY SAMUELS. 5 Paper Buildings, Temple, E.C.4.
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