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HOUSING ON FARMS ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1972

HOUSING ON FARMS ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1972 - LONG TITLE

An Act to consolidate the Housing on Farms Act (Northern Ireland)
1950 and certain other enactments.
[8th February 1972]
PART I$$A

HOUSING ON FARMS ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1972 - SECT 2
Restrictions on the making of grants under Part I.

2. A grant shall not be paid under this Part in respect of the
provision of any new farmhouse where

(a)the net annual value of a farmhouse on the farm (other that the
new farmhouse) exceeds [#300]; or

(b)any other grant out of money provided by Parliament, or by the
Parliament of the United Kingdom, is paid in respect of the
provision of the farmhouse; or

(c)the farmhouse when completed will not conform to such standards
as the Ministry may prescribe with respect to siting, accommodation
and construction.

HOUSING ON FARMS ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1972 - SECT 3
Statutory conditions under Part I.

3. Where a grant is paid by the Ministry under this Part in
respect of the provision of a new farmhouse on any farm, the
following conditions (in this Act referred to as "the Part I
conditions") shall, until the expiration of the period of five years
next after the date of the payment of the grant (in this section
referred to as "the relevant period"), apply in relation to such
farmhouse and such farm

(a)the new farmhouse shall, as soon as practicable, be occupied as
the dwelling-house of a person who is engaged in carrying on and
directing operations on the farm on which it is situate, and the
farmhouse, or any share therein or any part thereof, shall not,
without the consent of the Ministry, be used otherwise than as the
dwelling-house of such a person and his family;

(b)the new farmhouse, or any share therein or part thereof, shall
not, without the written consent of the Ministry, be transferred,
assigned, let or sub-let to any person otherwise than for use as
aforesaid;

(c)any premises previously used as a farmhouse shall not, without
the written consent of the Ministry, be used for human habitation;

(d)the new farmhouse shall not be enlarged, altered or structurally
modified so that the superficial area thereof exceeds fifteen hundred
square feet;

(e)an officer or servant of the Ministry duly authorised by it in
writing in that behalf may, where the Ministry has reasonable cause
to believe that the Part I conditions are not being performed and
observed, at all reasonable times enter the new farmhouse and any
premises previously used as a farmhouse for the purpose of
ascertaining whether those conditions are being duly performed and
observed.

S.4 rep. by 1978 NI 2 art.15(1)(c)

HOUSING ON FARMS ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1972 - SECT 5
Restrictions on the making of grants under Part II.

5. A grant shall not be paid under this Part in respect of the
provision of any approved worker's house where

(a)any other grant out of money provided by Parliament, or by the
Parliament of the United Kingdom, is paid in respect of the
provision of the house; or

(b)the house when completed will not conform to such standards as
the Ministry may prescribe with respect to siting, accommodation and
construction; or

(c)the house is so constructed as to be capable of being
amalgamated with any other house or houses so that such houses
together form a single house.

HOUSING ON FARMS ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1972 - SECT 6
Statutory conditions under Part II.

6. Where a grant is paid to an applicant by the Ministry under
this Part in respect of the provision of an approved worker's house
on any farm, the following conditions (in this Act referred to as
"the Part II conditions") shall, until the expiration of the period
of five years next after the date of the payment of the grant (in
this section referred to as "the relevant period"), apply in
relation to such house and such farm

(a)the house shall as soon as practicable be let to an approved
worker employed in the service of the applicant for the purpose of
carrying out on the farm agricultural operations of the nature
specified in the certificate given by the Ministry of Agriculture in
respect of the house under section 4(1);

(b)the house, or any share therein or part thereof, shall not,
without the written consent of the Ministry, be transferred,
assigned, let or sub-let otherwise than for occupation by an
approved worker, and shall not be occupied by any person other than
an approved worker and his family;

(c)the house shall not be enlarged, altered or structurally modified
so that the superficial area thereof exceeds one thousand and fifty
square feet, and shall not be amalgamated with any other house or
houses so that such houses together form a single house;

(d)an officer or servant of the Ministry duly authorised by it in
writing in that behalf may, where the Ministry has reasonable cause
to believe that the Part II conditions are not being performed and
observed, at all reasonable times enter the house for the purpose
of ascertaining whether those conditions are being duly performed and
observed.

Part III (ss.79) rep. by 1976 NI 25 art.80(4) sch.6 Pt.II

Expenses.

HOUSING ON FARMS ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1972 - SECT 10

10.(1) Expenses incurred by the Ministry (including the amount of
any grants payable by the Ministry under this Act) in consequence
of the passing of this Act may be defrayed either out of money
provided by Parliament or, if the Ministry of Finance so directs,
by means of sums charged on and issued out of the Consolidated
Fund, and, for the purpose of providing any sums so issued out of
the Consolidated Fund, the Ministry of Finance may borrow any sum
which it considers fit, so, however, that the aggregate of the sums
to be charged on and issued out of the Consolidated Fund under
this subsection shall not, unless and until Parliament otherwise
determines, exceed #1,000,000.

Subs.(2) rep. by SLR 1980

(3) Any money borrowed under subsection (1) shall be repaid within
any period or periods, not exceeding twenty-five years from the date
of borrowing, and provision for such repayment may be made out of
money provided by Parliament.

S.11 rep. by 1976 NI 25 art.80(4) sch.6 Pt.II; 1978 NI 2
art.15(1)(c)

HOUSING ON FARMS ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1972 - SECT 12
Procedure on application for, and payment of, grants.

12.Subs.(1) spent

(2) Grants under this Act shall be paid at such times and subject
to such conditions as to records, certificates, vouching of
expenditure or otherwise as the Ministry may determine.

HOUSING ON FARMS ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1972 - SECT 13
Power to remove statutory conditions where grant repaid.

13. Where the full amount of any grant paid under this Act in
respect of any premises, or an amount not less than that repayable
under section 14(3) or which would have been so repayable if, at
the time of the repayment, there had been a breach or contravention
of a condition, has been repaid to the Ministry, the observance of
the conditions imposed under this Act with respect to those premises
shall, if the Ministry so directs in writing, cease to be required
notwithstanding that the period for which those conditions were
imposed has not expired.

HOUSING ON FARMS ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1972 - SECT 14
Offences and penalties.

14.(1) Every person guilty of any breach or contravention of any
condition imposed by virtue of section 3 or by virtue of section 6
shall, without prejudice to any other liability, be guilty of an
offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not
exceeding

(a)in the case of a first offence, #100;

(b)in the case of a second or subsequent offence, #500.

Subs.(2) rep. by 1976 NI 25 art.80(4) sch.6 Pt.II

(3) In the event of any breach or contravention of any condition
imposed under this Act, there shall become due and repayable to the
Ministry, and recoverable upon demand made in writing by the
Ministry as a civil debt due to it, such sum as bears to the
amount of the grant paid by the Ministry in respect of the
premises to which the breach or contravention relates the same
proportion as that portion of the period for which the condition
was imposed which, at the time of the breach or contravention,
remains unexpired bears to the whole of the period.

(4) Where a person has been convicted of an offence under
subsection (1), the court before which he is convicted may, on such
conviction, order that, in addition to the amount repayable by him
under subsection (3), he shall repay to the Ministry the balance of
the grant paid in respect of the premises to which the breach or
contravention relates or such lesser sum as the court may consider
necessary to remedy the breach or contravention, and that order may,
without prejudice to any other remedy, be enforced in like manner
as a sum adjudged to be paid by a conviction of that court.

(5) If, for the purpose of obtaining a grant under this Act,
either for himself or for any other person, any person knowingly or
recklessly makes any false or fraudulent statement or representation

(a)the person making such statement or representation; and

(b)any person who received any payment under this Act knowing that
such statement or representation had been made;

(i)on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding
six months or to a fine not exceeding #100, or to both;

(ii)on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not
exceeding two years or to a fine not exceeding #500, or to both.

(6) Where any offence punishable under this section has been
committed by a body corporate, then, without prejudice to the
liability of that body, every person who, at the time of such
commission, was a director or other officer of the body corporate,
or was purporting to act in any such capacity, shall be liable to
be prosecuted as if he had personally committed that offence and
shall, if on such prosecution it is shown that he consented to, or
connived at, or did not exercise all such diligence as he ought in
the circumstances to have exercised to prevent, the offence, be
liable to the like conviction and punishment as if he had
personally been guilty of that offence.

HOUSING ON FARMS ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1972 - SECT 15
Regulations.

15.(1) The Ministry may make regulations prescribing anything which
is to be prescribed, and providing for any matter in regard to
which regulations may be made under this Act, and generally for
carrying this Act into effect.

(2) All regulations made under this Act shall be subject to
negative resolution.

HOUSING ON FARMS ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1972 - SECT 16
Interpretation.

16. In this Act

"approved worker" has the meaning assigned to it by section 4(1)(a);

"breach or contravention" includes an attempted breach or
contravention; and "contravention", in relation to any provision or
condition, includes a failure to comply with that provision or, as
the case may be, that condition;

"enactment" includes any provision in any Act (whether public
general, local or private) of the Parliament of Northern Ireland or
of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and any provision contained
in any Order in Council, order, regulation, rule, scheme, byelaw or
other instrument made under any such Act;

"family", when used in relation to the person using a farmhouse or
occupying an approved worker's house, includes all persons usually
residing in such house with such person, whether or not related to
him by blood or marriage;

"farmhouse", in relation to any farm, means the dwelling-house of a
person who is engaged in carrying on and directing agricultural
operations on that farm;

"the Ministry" has the meaning assigned to it by section 1(1);

"net annual value" means the net annual value [as estimated for the
purposes of the Rates (Northern Ireland) Order 1977 or, as the case
requires, the amount certified by the Commissioner of Valuation under
paragraph 7 of Part II of Schedule 16 to that Order];

"occupier" means the person who is rated as occupier or who, but
for the last-mentioned enactment, would have been so rated;

"the Part I conditions" has the meaning assigned to it by section
3;

"the Part II conditions" has the meaning assigned to it by section
6;

"prescribed" means prescribed by regulations made by the Ministry;

Definition rep. by 1976 NI 25 art.80(4) sch.6 Pt.II

"superficial area", in relation to any farmhouse or approved worker's
house, means the area of that house calculated in accordance with
such method as may be prescribed.

S.17, with Schedule 1, effects amendments

HOUSING ON FARMS ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1972 - SECT 18
Transitional and saving provisions.

18. The transitional and saving provisions specified in Schedule 2
shall have effect for the purposes of this Act.

S.19, with Schedule 3, effects repeals

HOUSING ON FARMS ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1972 - SECT 20
Short title and commencement.

20. This Act may be cited as the Housing on Farms Act (Northern
Ireland) 1972 ... Commencement ...

Schedule 1Amendments

1. Where an application has been made before the commencement of
this Act for a grant under the Housing on Farms Act (Northern
Ireland) 1950, the application shall be deemed to have been made
under this Act.

2. The approval of any plan or specification by the Ministry under
or for the purposes of any provision of this Act shall not affect
the liability of any person to comply with the provisions of any
enactment applicable to any works proposed to be carried out in
accordance with that plan or specification.

3. Notwithstanding the repeal by this Act of any provision of any
enactment, any statutory conditions in force immediately before the
commencement of this Act shall continue to have effect, and be
registrable in the Statutory Charges Register, as if this Act had
not been passed.

4. Nothing in this Act shall affect the provisions of sections 28
and 29 of the Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954 (effect of
repeals and of substituting provisions).

Schedule 3Repeals