Queensland Consolidated Acts

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PROPERTY LAW ACT 1974 - SECT 124

Restriction on and relief against forfeiture

124 Restriction on and relief against forfeiture

(1) A right of re-entry or forfeiture under any proviso or stipulation in a lease, for a breach of any covenant, obligation, condition or agreement (express or implied) in the lease, shall not be enforceable by action or otherwise unless and until the lessor serves on the lessee a notice—
(a) specifying the particular breach complained of; and
(b) if the breach is capable of remedy, requiring the lessee to remedy the breach; and
(c) in case the lessor claims compensation in money for the breach, requiring the lessee to pay the same;
and the lessee fails within a reasonable time after service of the notice to remedy the breach, if it is capable of remedy, and, where compensation in money is required, to pay reasonable compensation to the satisfaction of the lessor for the breach.
(2) Where a lessor is proceeding by action or otherwise to enforce such a right of re-entry or forfeiture, or has re-entered without action the lessee may, in the lessor’s action (if any) or in proceedings instituted by the lessee, apply to the court for relief, and the court, having regard to the proceedings and conduct of the parties under subsection (1) , and to all the other circumstances, may grant or refuse relief, as it thinks fit, and in case of relief may grant the same on such terms (if any) as to costs, expenses, damages, compensation, penalty or otherwise, including the granting of an injunction to restrain any like breach in the future, as the court in the circumstances of each case thinks fit.
(3) The making of an application under this section shall not of itself be construed as an admission on the part of the lessee—
(a) that any such notice as is mentioned in subsection (1) has been served by the lessor; or
(b) that any such breach as is mentioned in subsection (1) has occurred or that any right of or cause for re-entry or forfeiture has accrued or arisen;
and the court may, if it thinks fit, grant relief without making a finding that, or arriving at a final determination whether, any such notice has been served, or any such breach has occurred, or that any such right has accrued or cause arisen.
(4) This section applies although the proviso or stipulation under which the right of re-entry or forfeiture accrues is inserted in the lease under the directions of any Act of Parliament.
(5) For the purposes of this section a lease limited to continue as long only as the lessee abstains from committing a breach of covenant or obligation shall be and take effect as a lease to continue for any longer term for which it could subsist, but determinable by a proviso for re-entry on such a breach.
(6) This section does not extend—
(a) to any lease or tenancy for a term of 1 year or less; or
(b) to a covenant, condition, or agreement against the assigning, underletting, parting with the possession or disposing of the land leased where the breach occurred before the commencement of this Act; or
(c) to a condition for forfeiture on the taking in execution of the lessee’s interest in any lease of—
(i) agricultural or pastoral land; or
(ii) mines or minerals; or
(iii) a house used or intended to be used as licensed premises under the Liquor Act 1992 ; or
(iv) a house let as a dwelling house; or
(v) any property with respect to which the personal qualifications of the tenant are of importance for the preservation of the value or character of the property, or on the ground of neighbourhood to the lessor or to any person holding under the lessor; or
(d) in case of a mining lease—to a covenant, condition, or agreement for allowing the lessor to have access to or inspect books, accounts, records, weighing-machines, or other things, or to enter or inspect the mine or the workings of the mine; or
(e) to a condition for forfeiture on the taking in execution of the lessee’s interest in any lease (other than a lease mentioned in paragraph (c) ) after the expiration of 1 year from the date of taking in execution, provided the lessee’s interest be not sold within such 1 year.
(6A) But if the lessee’s interest be sold within such 1 year this section shall extend and be applicable to such condition for forfeiture.
(7) The rights and powers conferred by this section are in addition to and not in derogation of any right to relief or power to grant relief had apart from this section.
(8) The notice mentioned in this section shall be in the approved form.
(9) This section applies to leases made either before or after the commencement of this Act, and shall have effect despite any stipulation to the contrary.



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