Northern Territory Consolidated Acts Northern Territory Consolidated Acts39. Forfeiture of mortgaged lease
(1) Where a lease is subject to a mortgage given for valuable consideration and registered under the Land Title Act , the Minister shall not cause notice of the forfeiture of the lease to be published in the Gazette in pursuance of section 87(1) until after the expiration of a period of 28 days after the Minister has caused notice of his or her intention to do so to be given to the mortgagee.
(2) The Minister shall cause a copy of the notice under subsection (1) to be given to the lessee, and thereafter the lessee ceases, except with the consent in writing of the Minister, to be entitled to exercise any of the rights or powers conferred by the lease.
(3) If, during the period of 28 days after receipt of a notice under subsection (1), or within such further time as the Minister allows, a mortgagee advises the Minister that the mortgagee wishes to exercise the mortgagee's power of sale, the Minister shall allow him or her after 6 months or such further time as, in the opinion of the Minister, is reasonable to exercise it.
(4) Where the Minister allows a mortgagee time to exercise a power of sale, the Minister shall advise the mortgagee of the extent to which he or she is prepared to vary the requirements of the lease relating to development work, improvements and stocking and, where the Minister does so, he or she shall, if the lease is transferred following a sale, so vary those requirements.
(5) Where a mortgagee exercises a power of sale of a lease after receipt of a notice under subsection (1) in relation to the lease:
(a) the total of all amounts due and payable to the Territory by the lessee in relation to the lease up to and including the date of the sale is a debt due and payable to the Territory out of the proceeds of the sale, having priority before all debts secured by mortgage;
(b) the balance of the proceeds of the sale after payment of all debts and expenses payable out of those proceeds, being the amount that would otherwise be payable to the lessee, is a debt due and payable to the Territory and is not payable to the lessee; and
(c) on the transfer of the lease following the sale, the transferee holds the lease, as varied in pursuance of subsection (4), as though the action leading up to the forfeiture of the lease had not been commenced.