New South Wales Consolidated Acts

MINE SUBSIDENCE COMPENSATION ACT 1961 - SECT 12

12 Claims for damage arising out of subsidence

(1) Claims may be made under this Act for payment from the Fund of:

(a) compensation for any damage to improvements that arises from subsidence, except where the subsidence is due to operations carried on by the owner of the improvements,

(b) an amount to meet the proper and necessary expense incurred or to be incurred as a result of such damage in:

(i) building retaining walls or bolting together or underpinning or otherwise supporting, raising or repairing buildings and walls,

(ii) altering the approaches to or the levels of lands or buildings,

(iii) raising, lowering, diverting or making good roads, tramways, railways, pipelines, bridges, fences, sewers, drains or other improvements,

(c) an amount equivalent to the rent which would have been payable for such period as may be prescribed in respect of any buildings or works which by reason of such damage are untenantable, under repair or in course of construction, or where such buildings or works or any part thereof are or is occupied by the owner thereof such sum in lieu of rent as the Board deems just,

(d) compensation for any damage to household or other effects that arises from subsidence, except where the subsidence is due to operations carried on by the owner of the household or other effects.

No claim shall be entertained or payment made under this Act in respect of any improvement which was the subject of a conditional right to insure granted under section 16 of the Mine Subsidence Act 1928 unless the conditions of such conditional right have been, and are at the date of making such claim, complied with, or, where such conditions have not been or are not being so complied with, unless the Board is satisfied that any departure from or contravention of such conditions is such that it need not be rectified.
Where damage, caused by subsidence, to an improvement is greater, by reason of the negligent or improper manner in which the improvement was constructed or maintained, than it would have been had the improvement not been so constructed or maintained, the Board may reduce the amount of compensation in respect of the damage by such amount as it considers is attributable to the fact that the improvement was so constructed or maintained.

(1A) Notwithstanding anything contained in subsection (1) or (2), or section 12A, or any approval given under section 15, where:

(a) improvements or household or other effects used in connection with the carrying on of an extractive industry or operation were damaged by subsidence before, or are so damaged after, the commencement of the Mine Subsidence Compensation (Amendment) Act 1969 , or

(b) expense referred to in section 12A (1) (b) was incurred before that commencement, or is incurred or proposed, in relation to any such improvements or household or other effects,

the Board may refuse to entertain a claim, or make a payment, in respect of that damage or expense where it is satisfied that the cause of the subsidence that caused the damage or necessitated the expense was the carrying on of that industry or operation.

(2)

(a) The owner of any improvement or any household or other effects which have been damaged by subsidence may notify the Secretary of the Board in a form approved by the Board and within the prescribed time of the details of such damage; the location of the improvement damaged; the description of the household or other effects damaged; the amount claimed from the Fund and such other particulars as may be prescribed.
Such notification shall be treated as a claim for payment from the Fund under subsection (1).

(b) Any such notification received shall be recorded and investigated by the Board, an officer of the Board or some other officer in the Public Service acting for the Board and on receipt of a report of such investigation the matter shall be placed before a meeting of the Board for a decision as to the payment, if any, to be allowed in respect of the damage to which such notification relates.

(5) Payments may be made under and in accordance with the provisions of this Act notwithstanding any covenant, condition, stipulation or restriction affecting, limiting or restricting the recovery of damages or compensation for damage arising from subsidence to improvements or household or other effects in respect of which a claim for such payment has been made.