New South Wales Consolidated Acts

LANDLORD AND TENANT (AMENDMENT) ACT 1948 - SECT 81

81 Persons not to interfere with use or enjoyment of premises

(1) A person shall not, whether as principal or agent or in any other capacity, without the consent of the lessee of prescribed premises, or without reasonable cause (proof whereof shall lie upon the defendant), do, or cause to be done, any act, or omit, or cause to be omitted, any act whereby the ordinary use or enjoyment by the lessee of the premises or of any goods leased therewith, or of any conveniences usually available to the lessee, or of any service supplied to, or provided in connection with, the premises is interfered with or restricted.

(2) Where the lessor, or any agent or servant of the lessor, has been convicted of an offence arising under subsection (1), the court may order the lessor to do such things as are necessary to enable the lessee to resume the ordinary use or enjoyment of the premises, goods, conveniences or service, and the lessor shall comply with the provisions of the order.
Where the lessor fails to comply with the provisions of the order he or she shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and in addition to any other penalty prescribed by this Act he or she shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding 0.1 penalty unit for each day during which such non-compliance continues.

(3) For the purposes of this section, conveniences shall be deemed to be usually available to the lessee where prior to the use of the conveniences having been interfered with or restricted without his or her consent, he or she has been allowed, at all times during the tenancy to use those conveniences as he or she desired or he or she has been allowed to use those conveniences at times agreed to by the lessor and lessee or at times equivalent to those times.

(3A) Where the lessor of any prescribed premises, being a dwelling-house, or any agent or servant of the lessor, has been convicted of an offence arising under subsection (1), the court before which the lessor, agent or servant, as the case may be, was convicted, if it is of opinion that the acts or omissions constituting the offence were done or omitted with intent that the person who was lessee at the time when those acts or omissions were done or omitted to be done vacate the premises and that person has vacated the premises, may, in addition to the penalty prescribed by this Act for the offence, order the lessor to pay to that person such sum as appears to the court to be sufficient as compensation for damage or loss sustained by that person as the result of his or her vacating the premises, and the provisions of subsection (3) of section 61 shall apply, mutatis mutandis, to and in respect of any order for the payment of any sum under this subsection.

(4)

(a) Where any service in connection with prescribed premises charged for and supplied or provided by some person other than the lessor of such premises has before the commencement of the Landlord and Tenant (Amendment) Act 1949 ceased to be supplied or provided or after such commencement ceases to be supplied or provided, then unless that service or a service corresponding thereto and no less beneficial to the lessee is supplied or provided within fourteen days after the lessee has served upon the lessor a written requisition therefor, the fair rent of the premises or of the premises together with goods leased therewith may be reduced on the lessee’s application made in accordance with the provisions of Part 2, notwithstanding the provisions of sections 20, 21 and 32, by such amount not exceeding one-half thereof as a Fair Rents Board or the Director-General in its or his or her discretion, as the case may be, thinks fit.

(b) A reduction of the fair rent of prescribed premises, or of prescribed premises together with goods leased therewith, shall not be made pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (a) in any case where the Fair Rents Board or the Director-General, as the case may be, is satisfied that the lessor or any person or body of persons corporate or unincorporate under the control or influence of the lessor is not in any way responsible for the cessation of the service and that it is not within the power of the lessor to restore the service or to have the service restored or to supply or provide, or to have supplied or provided, a corresponding and no less beneficial service.