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RIGHTS OF LIGHT ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1961

RIGHTS OF LIGHT ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1961 - LONG TITLE

An Act to amend the law relating to rights of light, and for
purposes connected with that matter.
[19th December 1961]
Registration of notice in lieu of obstruction of access to light.

RIGHTS OF LIGHT ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1961 - SECT 1

1.(1) For the purpose of preventing the access and use of light
from being taken to be enjoyed without interruption, any person who
is the owner of land (in this Act referred to as "the servient
land") over which light passes to a dwelling house, workshop or
other building (in this Act referred to as "the dominant building")
may apply to the registrar of titles for the registration of a
notice under this section in the Statutory Charges Register.

Subs.(2) rep. by 1970 c.18 (NI) s.97 sch.14

(3) An application for the registration of a notice under this
section shall

[(a)be accompanied by a fee of five pounds payable in the same
manner in which fees may be paid to the Land Registry;]

(b)state the name, address and description of the applicant and be
signed by him;

(c)contain a description, by reference to a map or plan drawn to a
scale sufficient to enable the servient land and the dominant
building to be identified accurately upon the ordnance map for the
area within which they are situated;

(d)state the postal addresses of the servient land and of the
dominant building;

(e)state the names, addresses and descriptions of all the persons
who, at the time when the application is made, appear to the
applicant to be persons likely to be affected by the registration
of a notice in pursuance of the application;

(f)state that the registration of a notice in pursuance of the
application is intended to be equivalent to the obstruction of the
access of light to the dominant building across the servient land
which would be caused by the erection, in such position on the
servient land as is specified in the application, of one, and not
more than one, opaque structure of unlimited height.

(4) The registrar of titles shall not register any notice under
this section unless he is satisfied

(a)that adequate notice of the proposed application for registration
has been given by post to all the persons described (pursuant to
paragraph (e) of sub-section (3)) in the application, and to any
other person who appears to him to be likely to be affected by
the registration of a notice in pursuance of the application; and

(b)that an adequate advertisement of the proposed application has
been published in a newspaper circulating in the district in which
the servient land and the dominant building are situated.

RIGHTS OF LIGHT ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1961 - SECT 2
Effect of registration of notice.

2.(1) Where, in pursuance of an application made in accordance with
section one, a notice is registered thereunder, then, for the
purpose of determining whether any person is entitled (by virtue of
the Prescription Act, 1832, or otherwise) to a right to the access
of light to the dominant building across the servient land, the
access of light to that building shall be treated as obstructed to
the same extent, and with the like consequences, as if an opaque
structure, of unlimited height

(a)had, on the date of registration of the notice, been erected in
the position on the servient land specified in the application and
had been so erected by the person who made the application; and

(b)had remained in that position during the period for which the
notice has effect and had been removed at the end of that period.

(2) For the purposes of this section a notice registered under
section one shall be taken to have effect until

(a)the registration is cancelled; or

(b)the expiration of the period of one year beginning with the date
of registration of the notice;

(3) Subject to the following provisions of this section, any person
who, if such a structure as is mentioned in sub-section (1) had
been erected as therein mentioned would have had a right of action
in any court in respect of that structure, on the grounds that he
was entitled to a right to the access of light to the dominant
building across the servient land and that the said right was
infringed by that structure, shall have the like right of action in
that court in respect of the registration of a notice under section
one, but an action shall not be begun by virtue of this
sub-section after the notice in question has ceased to have effect.

(4) Where, at any time during the period for which a notice
registered under section one has effect, the circumstances are such
that, if the access of light to the dominant building had been
enjoyed continuously from a date one year earlier than the date on
which enjoyment thereof in fact began, a person would have had a
right of action in any court by virtue of sub-section (3) in
respect of the registration of the notice, that person shall have
the like right of action in that court by virtue of this
sub-section in respect of the registration of the notice.

(5) The remedies available to the plaintiff in an action brought by
virtue of sub-section (3) or sub-section (4) (apart from any order
as to costs) shall be such declaration as the court may consider
appropriate in the circumstances and an order directing the
registration of the notice to be cancelled or varied, as the court
may determine.

(6) For the purposes of section four of the Prescription Act, 1832
(under which nothing constitutes an interruption of the enjoyment of
any right to which that Act applies unless submitted to or
acquiesced in for one year after notice thereof)

(a)as from the date of registration of a notice under section one,
all persons interested in the dominant building or any part thereof
shall be deemed to have notice of the registration thereof and of
the person on whose application it was registered;

(b)until such time as an action is brought by virtue of sub-section
(3) or sub-section (4) in respect of the registration of a notice
under section one, all persons interested in the dominant building
shall be deemed to acquiesce in the obstruction which in accordance
with sub-section (1), is to be treated as resulting from the
registration of the notice;

(c)as from the date on which such an action is brought, no person
shall be treated as submitting to or acquiescing in that
obstruction;

S.3 rep. by SLR 1976

RIGHTS OF LIGHT ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1961 - SECT 4
Application to Crown land.

4.(1) Subject to sub-section (2), this Act shall bind the Crown to
the full extent authorised by the constitutional laws of Northern
Ireland and accordingly shall apply in relation to land in which
there is a Crown or Duchy estate as it applies in relation to
land in which there is no such estate.

(2) Section three of the Prescription Act, 1832, as modified by the
preceding provisions of this Act, shall not by virtue of this
section be construed as applying to any land to which (by reason
that there is a Crown or Duchy estate therein) that section would
not apply apart from this Act.

(3) In this section "Crown or Duchy estate" means an estate
belonging to Her Majesty in right of the Crown or of the Duchy of
Lancaster, or belonging to the Duchy of Cornwall, or belonging to a
department of the government of Northern Ireland or of the
government of the United Kingdom, or held in trust for Her Majesty
for the purposes of a department of either such government.

RIGHTS OF LIGHT ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1961 - SECT 5
Interpretation.

5. In this act

"action" includes a counterclaim, and any reference to the plaintiff
in an action shall be construed accordingly;

"tenancy" means a tenancy created either immediately or derivatively
out of the freehold, whether by a lease or underlease, by an
agreement for a lease or underlease or by a tenancy agreement or
in pursuance of any enactment, but does not include a mortgage term
or any estate arising in favour of a mortgagor by his attorning
tenant to his mortgagee;

"owner", in relation to any land, means a person who is for the
time being the owner of any freehold estate therein, or is entitled
to a tenancy thereof for a term of years certain of which, at the
time in question, not less than seven years remain unexpired, or is
a mortgagee in possession (within the meaning of the Conveyancing
Act, 1881) where the estate mortgaged is either such a freehold
estate or such a tenancy.

RIGHTS OF LIGHT ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1961 - SECT 6
Short title.

6.(1) This Act may be cited as the Rights of Light Act (Northern
Ireland), 1961.

Subs.(2) rep. by SLR 1973