New South Wales Consolidated Acts

LANDLORD AND TENANT (AMENDMENT) ACT 1948 - SECT 62A

62A Court may bar lessor’s right to take proceedings where refusal of consent to assignment etc unreasonable

(1) The Local Court may, in relation to prescribed premises (not being premises used solely as a dwelling-house):

(a) on application in that behalf made by the lessee who has become the lessee of the premises by virtue of a transfer or assignment, order that a notice to quit upon the ground specified in paragraph (b), or paragraph (n) of subsection (5) of section 62 shall not be given in relation to the transfer or assignment and also, if any such notice to quit has been given in relation to the transfer or assignment before the making of the order, that the notice to quit so given shall be void and of no effect,

(b) on application in that behalf made by the lessee of the premises, who has sub-let the premises, order that a notice to quit on the ground specified in paragraph (b) or paragraph (o) of the said subsection shall not be given in relation to the sub-lease and also, if any such notice to quit has been given in relation to the sub-lease before the making of the order, that the notice to quit so given shall be void and of no effect,

(c) on application in that behalf made by the lessee of the premises who proposes to sub-let the premises or to transfer or assign the lease of the premises, order that a notice to quit on the ground specified in paragraph (b), paragraph (n) or paragraph (o) of the said subsection shall not, if the proposed sub-lease, transfer or assignment is subsequently made or effected, be given in relation to the sub-lease, transfer or assignment,

if the court is satisfied:

(i) that the lessor, having been requested to consent to or approve that transfer or assignment or sub-lease or proposed sub-lease or proposed transfer or assignment of the lease, unreasonably refused or unreasonably withheld that consent or approval, and

(ii) that the lessor has not offered to pay to the lessee making the application a fair and reasonable price for the lease (including the goodwill of any business carried on by the lessee upon the premises).

(1A) In any proceedings by a lessee before the Local Court pursuant to paragraph (c) of subsection (1), the Court may, in addition to granting the order referred to in that paragraph, order that any notice to quit given before the making of the order to the lessee in relation to the premises concerned in the proceedings shall be void and of no effect, if the Court is not satisfied that the ground specified in the notice is true in fact.

(1B) Where an order has been granted under paragraph (c) of subsection (1) the lessor of the premises the subject of the order shall not give to the lessee any notice to quit within one month after the making of the order.
Nothing in this subsection affects the operation of paragraph (a) of subsection (3).

(2)

(a) Any party to any proceedings in the Local Court under subsection (1) may appeal to the District Court against the decision of the Local Court given in those proceedings granting or refusing an order of the nature referred to in that subsection.

(b) The appeal shall be by way of rehearing and shall be made in accordance with rules of court.

(3)

(a) A notice to quit given in contravention of an order made under this section and subsisting at the date upon which the notice to quit is given shall be void and of no effect.

(b) An order under this section that any notice to quit shall be void and of no effect shall have effect according to its tenor.

(4) In this section the expression “premises used solely as a dwelling-house” does not include premises which are sub-let in whole or in part by the lessee, with the express or implied consent of the lessor, in the course of the lessee’s business of sub-letting for residential purposes.