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5. Failure to remove debris has occurred for the following reasons:
(1) Owner absent and unconcerned;
(2) Owner present but unable to bear expense;
(3) Owner present but debris incapable of being moved owing to physical
difficulty.
Re-enty and forfeiture of the lease would not be inequitable in case (1) because two years have elapsed since the re-occupation, or in (2) though less surely, because if an owner cannot finance removal he cannot finance rebuilding, and the Crown cannot indefinitely forgo Crown rents, delay rehabilitation and, incidentally lose a source of rates. In case (3), it would be inequitable that forfeiture should take place and in such case-
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(a) The Governor in Council may grant relief; or
(b) The Court may grant relief.
Adoption of a policy of re-entry would be prefaced by a general notice to the effect that failure to remove debris may result in re-entry and the address of a letter to individual owners asking their intentions with regard to the property. There- after, each individual case would be submitted to the Land Office-
(a) to verify the title and take notice of any trusts or charges;
(b) to check that in each particular case there is a repair covenant and a
re-entry clause.
Re-entry would take place upon the Land Officer entering a memorial of re-entry in the Land Registry. If owners then express desire to retain and use the land, negotiations as to terms of equitable relief from re-entry would ensue such terms to involve-.
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(i) payment of site clearance expenses; and
(ii) amendment of the building covenant-to specify purpose or increase amount to be spent as a consideration for forgoing the Crown Rent until re-building is commenced.
In cases where re-entry is completed, future use of the land effected could be controlled because on its re-sale conditions could be attached.
J. B. GRIFFIN, Attorney General- 6th January, 1948.
APPENDIX "D".
A Note on the Title of Crown Lessees and their Covenants to Maintain and Repair.
There is no freehold title in the Colony (with an exception that does not matter) and all land is held by some kind of title from the Crown. With permittees we are not concerned, for a permit is utilized (or should be) only to grant rights of a very temporary nature over land and is not applicable to a grant where maintenance of a building over a period of years is required. The normal form of title is leasehold for 75 years, for 75 years renewable for a further 75 years, or for 999 years, and each lease contains a covenant that the lessee "shall
from time to time and at all times hereafter when where and as often as need or occasion shall be and require at his own proper costs and charges well and sufficiently Repair Uphold Support Maintain .. and Keep the messuage or tenement messuages or tenements and all other erections and buildings now or at any time hereafter standing upon the ground
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