AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

forfeiture of leases act 1901 
(new south wales)
This consolidation has been prepared by the ACT Parliamentary Counsel’s Office
Updated as at 25 May 1998
TABLE OF PROVISIONS
Section
	1.	Restrictions on forfeiture
	2.	Regulations regarding notice
	4.	Application of Act
	6.	Short title
SCHEDULE
form

An Act for granting relief against forfeiture of leases and for otherwise amending the law as to property
1. 	Restrictions on forfeiture
(1) 	A right of re-entry or forfeiture under any proviso or stipulation in a lease for a breach of any covenant or condition in the lease shall not be enforceable by action or otherwise, unless and until the lessor serves on the lessee a notice specifying the particular breach complained of, and, if the breach is capable of remedy, requiring the lessee to remedy the breach, and in any case requiring the lessee to make compensation in money for the breach, and the lessee fails within a reasonable time thereafter to remedy the breach, if it is capable of remedy, and to make reasonable compensation in money 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, the lessee may in any suit brought by himself in the Supreme Court apply to that court for relief; and that court may grant or refuse relief as that court, having regard to the proceedings and conduct of the parties under the foregoing provisions of this section and to all the other circumstances, thinks fit; and in case of relief may grant it 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) 	For the purpose of this section, a lease includes an original or derivative under-lease, also a grant at a fee farm rent, or securing a rent by condition; and a lessee includes an original or derivative under-lessee, and the heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns of a lessee, also a grantee under such a grant as aforesaid, his heirs and assigns; and a lessor includes an original or derivative under-lessor, and the heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns of the lessor, also a grantor as aforesaid, and his heirs and assigns.
(4) 	This section applies although the proviso or stipulation under which the right of re-entry or forfeiture accrues is inserted in the lease in pursuance of a provision of another law in force in the Territory.
(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, 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 Crown lease or to any lease or tenancy for a term of one year or less; or
	(b)	to a covenant or condition against the assigning, under-letting, parting with the possession or disposing of the land leased; or to a condition for forfeiture on the bankruptcy of the lessee, or on the taking in execution of the lessee’s interest.
(7) 	This section shall not affect the law relating to re-entry or forfeiture or relief in case of non-payment of rent.
(8) 	In this section, in its application in the Territory, a reference to the Crown shall be read as a reference to the Crown in right of the Commonwealth.
2. 	Regulations regarding notice
(1) 	The notice mentioned in section 1 shall be in writing, and in the form set out in the Schedule or to a similar effect.
(2) 	Such notice shall be sufficient, although only addressed to the lessee by that designation, without his name, or generally to the persons interested without any name, and notwithstanding that any person to be affected by the notice is absent, under disability, unborn or ascertained.
(3) 	Such notice shall be sufficiently served if it is left at the last-known place of abode or business in the Territory of the lessee, or affixed or left for him on the land or any house or building comprised in the lease or, in the case of a mining lease, is left for the lessee at the office or counting-house of the mine.
(4) 	Such notice shall also be sufficiently served if it is sent by post in a registered letter addressed to the lessee by name, at the aforesaid place of abode or business, office, or counting-house, and if that letter is not returned through the post-office undelivered; and that service shall be deemed to be made at a time at which the registered letter would in the ordinary course be delivered.
(5) 	Such notice shall also be sufficiently served on any person who is absent from the Territory if it is served personally on his attorney or agent within the Territory.
4. 	Application of Act
(1)	This Act applies to leases made either before or after the commencement of this Act, and to any merger by operation of law only arising before or after the commencement of this Act, and shall have effect notwithstanding any stipulation to the contrary.
(2) 	Notwithstanding subsection (1), this Act does not apply to a residential tenancy agreement within the meaning of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 to which that Act applies.
6. 	Short title
	This Act may be cited as the Forfeiture of Leases Act 1901.1

	SCHEDULE	Subsection 2 (1)
To
The Lessee of [here describe premises with reasonable certainty]
Having reference to the lease of the abovementioned premises, dated the			day of		, 198    , from A.B. to C.D., and the covenant by the lessee therein contained [here state concisely the nature of the covenant or covenants breach of which is complained of, as for instance, “to repair,”] and the breach by you of that covenant I hereby give you notice and require you to remedy that breach by [here set out the remedy as, for instance, “by forthwith putting the said premises in repair by doing and executing the repairs in and upon the said premises which are specified in the Schedule hereto annexed”] And I further require you to make reasonable compensation to my satisfaction for the breach already committed, which compensation I assess at the sum of $	   .
Dated the			day of			 , 19    .
	Lessor.

NOTES
1.	The Forfeiture of Leases Act 1901 of the State of New South Wales (No. 66, 1901) was one of the laws in force in the Australian Capital Territory before 1 January 1911 and was therefore continued in force by the Seat of Government Acceptance Act 1909 of the Commonwealth.
	The text of the Forfeiture of Leases Act 1901 of the State of New South Wales in its application in the Territory as at 10 August 1984 comprises Part 14 of Schedule 2 to the New South Wales Acts Application Act 1984 (No. 41, 1984) as amended, details of those amendments are as follows:
	Sections 3 and 5 were repealed by the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1958.
	The operation of section 1 is also affected by section 4 of the Forfeiture and Validation of Leases Act 1905 in its application in the Territory which is published separately.
	Citation of Laws—The Self-Government (Citation of Laws) Act 1989 (No. 21, 1989) altered the citation of most Ordinances so that after Self-Government day they are to be cited as Acts.  That Act also affects references in ACT laws to Commonwealth Acts.
2.	The Legislation (Republication) Act 1996 (No. 51, 1996) authorises the Parliamentary Counsel in preparing a law for republication, to make certain editorial and other formal amendments in accordance with current legislative drafting practice.  Those amendments make no change in the law.  Amendments made pursuant to that Act do not appear in the Table of Amendments but details may be obtained on request from the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office.
Table of Acts
Act	Number  
and year	Date of 
notification 
in Gazette	Date of 
commencement	Application, saving or transitional provisions	

(Reprinted as at 31 August 1992)	
Residential Tenancies (Consequential Provisions) Act 1998
	4, 1998	25 May 1998	25 May 1998
(see s. 2)	—	

Table of Amendments
ad. = added or inserted      am. = amended     rep. = repealed      rs. = repealed and substituted

Provision	How affected

S. 4	am. No. 4, 1998