VPRS 5409 Metropolitan Determination Files (PART DESTROYED 2017)

The Fair Rents Boards were established in 1948 under provisions of the Landlord and Tenant (Amendment) Act 1948. Their responsibility was to determine the "fair rent" of "prescribed premises" or controlled premises under procedures set out in the Landlord and Tenant Act which was passed and proclaimed earlier in 1948.Although provisions for rent control by state or federal authorities were in force during the depression of the 1930's, the first rent control provisions of a similar nature to those enforced by the Fair Rents Boards were embodied in the Fair Rents Act, which took force in 1938. This Act provided for a landlord or tenant to apply to a Court of Petty Sessions for the fair rent of the premises to be determined.Legislation enacted in the 1940's, however, controlled the level of rent of all rented premises, not just those in respect of which an application was made to a court.4 Under Commonwealth National Security (Landlord and Tenant Regulations) the level of rent of all rented premises was frozen on 31 December 1940 and the role of a Commonwealth Rent Controller was established to determine appropriate variations to rent.This procedure was embodied in Victorian Legislation in 1948 and later that year the Landlord and Tenant (Amendment) Act transferred the responsibilities of the Rent Controller to the Fair Rents Boards. Under this Act, the Governor-in-Council could constitute a Board in any place in Victoria that was deemed to be appropriate. Each Board consisted of one stipendiary magistrate.Under the Landlord and Tenant Act and its amendment, two processes were established relating to the administration of prescribed premises; the determination of fair rents and the hearing of applications for orders for the termination of tenancy agreements (recovery of possession). The Fair Rents Boards were responsible for the first of these functions.Under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1948 and the 1948 amendment to it, any dwelling-house except a holiday house or house on a farm property was a prescribed premise. If a prescribed premise was rented at any time after the commencement of the Act or at any time since 31 December 1940 (when rent was frozen under Commonwealth Regulations) then the Fair Rents Boards were responsible for determining rent.Either a lessor or a lessee could make an application to a Board for the fair rent of the premises to be determined. In making such a determination the Board was to take into account not only the value of the property, level of rates and state of repair, but also the financial position of both the lessor and lessee and any likely hardship which may be caused by varying the level of rent.The categories of premises for which the Boards were responsible for determining rent altered over time as successive legislative amendments reduced the number of circumstances in which a rented premise was prescribed. Under an amendment to the Landlord and Tenant Act made in 1953, only those premises declared to be prescribed between 31 December and 1 February 1954 (the date the amendment Act commenced) were subject to Landlord and Tenancy Legislation and were required to apply to the Board for rent determination. Other amendments limited the application of the Act to leases involving tenants who had leased prescribed premises between 1941 and 1954, and in 1971 a further amendment made provision for the lessor of prescribed premises to apply to a Board for the premises to cease to be prescribed if it was believed that this would not cause financial hardship to the tenants.Between 1954 and 1982, therefore, the Boards were responsible for rent determination of a gradually decreasing number of prescribed premises. A substantial proportion of these were leased to "protected persons" who had greater rights to the occupation of rented premises and hence remained in prescribed premises for a longer period of time.Prior to 1980 most of the law relating to residential tenancy was embodied in the Landlord and Tenant Act, 1958. Most of the provisions of this Act related to premises known as prescribed (or controlled) premises. These were premises subject to special tenancy conditions, including rent control. The Fair Rents Boards were responsible for rent determination of prescribed premises until 1982 when responsibility was transferred to the Residential Tenancies Tribunal. From that time the Residential Tenancies Tribunal has sat as the Fair Rents Board to determine applications regarding prescribed premises under Part V of the Landlord and Tenant Act and took on the powers and responsibilities of Magistrates Courts relating to the making of orders for the recovery of possession of prescribed premises by landlords.Files include :- statements made by landlords and tenants,- notes made by the Board in determination,- related correspondence,- plans of rented premises,- schedule of Board's determination establishing appropriate rental fee.There is evidence on the file covers of other single sumber systems with C (Complaints) and A (Agreement ) prefix. These C and A systems may have been either document or file registrations systems. The R files contain both C and A registered papers.