Closer Settlement Act 1957

Except where TDR sees fit to grant a settlement lease in accordance with section 29, a holding leased for the time being shall be let on a development lease in accordance with this section.

A development lease shall be for one year and thereafter from year to year at such rent and on such conditions as TDR thinks fit.

A development lease granted under this section shall specify the period for which it may continue, being a period not more than 10 years.

Unless a development lease is determined at least one year before the end of the period referred to in subsection (2A) TDR shall, in the first 6 months of the last year of that period, determine the lease by notice to quit expiring at the end of that period.

Where TDR determines a lease pursuant to subsection (3) it may offer the tenant a settlement lease under section 29 to commence on the termination of the development lease.

Subject to this section, the provisions of a development lease may be varied at any time by agreement and TDR may, with any notice to quit that it is entitled to give, offer the tenant a variation of the provisions upon the acceptance of which the notice to quit shall be void.

A settlement lease may be granted to and accepted by a lessee under a development lease at any time before the commencement of the period of 6 months mentioned in subsection (3), and thereupon the development lease shall merge in the settlement lease.

A tenant who has been offered a settlement lease under subsection (3) and has refused it or whose development lease has been determined without his acceptance of a settlement lease shall be paid by TDR compensation for any improvements made or paid for by him with the written consent of TDR and not exhausted at the end of his tenancy.

Without prejudice to the contents of the subsequent settlement lease, a development lease shall impose on the parties thereto the same obligations as nearly as possible as a settlement lease except so far as TDR thinks it advisable to vary them in conformity with the object of the lease.