Cap. 158 Art. 2Interpretation.

In this Ordinance and any regulations made hereunder, except in so far as the context otherwise requires -

"appointed day" means the day on which this Ordinance comes into force;

"the Board" means the Rent Regulation Board constituted under article 16 of the Reletting of Urban Property (Regulation)

Ordinance;

"decontrolled dwelling-house" means a dwelling-house registered by the Land Valuation Officer in accordance with the provisions of article 3;

"dwelling-house" means a building or part of a building constructed or structurally adapted for occupation as a separate dwelling; "fair rent" means the rent that has been or may be established by the Board in respect of a dwelling-house in accordance with the provisions of the Rent Restriction (Dwelling Houses) Ordinance;

"improvements" includes structural alterations, additions or extensions and the provision of additional fixtures or fittings, but does not include anything done by way of decoration or repair; "increase in inflation" means the increase in inflation established in the manner provided in article 13; "Land Valuation Officer" means the officer appointed by the Prime Minister as Land Valuation Officer for the purpose of the Developed Land (Valuation) Ordinance;

"lessor" includes any person deriving title under the original lessor;

"letting" or "lease" includes -

(a) any emphyteutical or sub-emphyteutical grant for a period not exceeding sixteen years;

(b) notwithstanding any stipulation to the contrary, any agreement in pursuance of which any person has been accommodated in consideration of payment periodically recurrent in any dwelling-house; and

(c) any other agreement whereby any real or personal right on any dwelling-house, which right includes that of occupation of that dwelling-house, is granted under an onerous or commutative title for a period of time, whether such time is established by fixing a certain specified day or whether it can be established by reference to a certain or to an uncertain future event;

"owner" used with reference to a dwelling-house means the person or any of the persons entitled to that dwelling-house in absolute ownership, emphyteusis, sub-emphyteusis, or usufruct: * Provided that in article 3(d) and, for the purpose of and in relation to that paragraph, in any other provision of this Ordinance, "owner" used with reference to a dwelling-house means the person or any of the persons entitled to that dwelling-house in absolute ownership or in perpetual emphyteusis or sub-emphyteusis or in usufruct, but, in the last mentioned case, only if on the termination of the usufruct the bare owner becomes entitled to that dwelling-house in absolute ownership or in perpetual emphyteusis or sub-emphyteusis;

"prescribed" means prescribed by regulations under article 15; "rental period" means a period in respect of which a payment for rent falls to be made;

*This proviso was added by Act XXXVII of 1973 which contained the following provisions: "4. (1) Subject to the provisions of sub-article (2) of this article nothing in this Act shall affect any registration validly made by the Land Valuation Officer under article 3 of the principal law before the coming into force of this Act.

(2) Notwithstanding any provision of the principal law, any registration as a decontrolled dwelling house made by the Land Valuation Officer under the principal law before the coming into force of this Act shall be without effect, and any house so registered shall be deemed not to be and never to have been a decontrolled dwelling house, if such registration was made after the issue of a requisition order under the Housing Act in respect of such house and if -

(a) the house is one specified in paragraph (d) of article 3 of the principal law; or

(b) in the case of any other house, a person has been accommodated therein or has otherwise remained in occupation thereof before the coming into force of this Act, and in any such case any such house shall be deemed to have always remained a requisitioned house." "the Rent Ordinances" means the Reletting of Urban Property (Regulation) Ordinance and the Rent Restriction (Dwelling Houses) Ordinance;

"repairs" means those repairs which the lessor is bound to carry out at his expense;

"tenant" means also:

(a) in the case of a dwelling-house:

(i) that person who has been recognised as a tenant in accordance with any law validly applicable before the 1st June 2021;

(ii) the widow or widower of a tenant:

Provided that the widow or the widower shall not have the right to be considered a tenant if he did not inhabit the dwelling-house for four (4) out of the last five (5) years prior to the 1st June, 2008 and, in the case of this sub-paragraph did not continue living with the tenant until the date of his death;

(iii) the siblings of the tenant who have continued the lease together with him: in solidum

Provided that the siblings shall not have the right to be considered as tenants if they did not inhabit the dwelling-house for four (4) out of the last five (5) years prior to the 1st June, 2008, and, in the case of this sub-paragraph did not continue living with the tenant until the date of his death:

Provided that following the coming into force of the Controlled Residential Leases Reform Act, 2021, no person who has not yet been recognised as the tenant of a dwelling-house up to that date shall qualify as a tenant of a dwelling-house in terms of this definition, except for those who qualify in accordance with sub-paragraphs (ii) and (iii):

Provided further that persons who do not qualify under sub-paragraphs (i), (ii) and (iii) and have lived in the dwelling-house for four (4) out of the last five (5) years before the 1st June, 2008, and have continued to live with the tenant until the date of the demise of the tenant shall continue occupying the dwelling-house for a period of five (5) years from the date of death of the tenant, and at the end of which period they shall vacate said dwelling-house. The compensation for the occupation of the dwelling-house that shall be payable to the lessor during the aforementioned period shall be equal to the highest rent amount that may have been payable by the tenant:

Provided further that following the death of the tenant the lessor may file an application in accordance with the provisions of article 12B and if these persons who do not qualify under sub-paragraphs (i), (ii) and (iii) do not satisfy the income and capital assets criteria of the means-test, the Board shall make a decision in terms of sub-article (4) of article 12B;

(b) any sub-tenant in relation to the tenant;.

"war damage payment" means a cost of works payment as defined in the War Damage Ordinance.*