(1) This section shall apply to every dwellinghouse or part thereof let as a separate dwelling, which (being situated within the earthquake area as defined by the Hawke's Bay Earthquake Act 1931) was let on the third day of February, nineteen hundred and thirty-one, or has been let at any time since that date, at a rental not exceeding the sum of two hundred and eight dollars per annum.
(2) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in Part 1 of the War Legislation Amendment Act 1916, or in any enactment amending the same, application may be made to a District Court Judge by or on behalf of the tenant of any dwellinghouse or part of a dwellinghouse to which this section applies, for an order declaring that the said enactments shall be applied to such dwellinghouse or such part thereof, as the case may be.
(3) On the hearing of any such application the District Court Judge shall proceed in the same manner in all respects as if the application were an application made under section four of the Rent Restriction Act 1926, and the provisions of subsections four, five, and six of that section shall, with the necessary modifications, apply in the case of applications under this section in the same manner as to applications made under the said section four:
Provided that no order made for the purposes of this section shall be made retrospective to any date earlier than the third day of February, nineteen hundred and thirty-one.
(4) Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit the application of the next succeeding section, or of the enactments therein referred to.
The reference to “two hundred and eight dollars”
was substituted, as from 10 July 1967, for a reference to “one hundred and four pounds”
pursuant to section 7(1) Decimal Currency Act 1964 (1964 No 27).
The words “District Court”
and “District Court Judge”
were substituted for the words “Magistrates Court”
and “Stipendiary Magistrate”
, as from 1 April 1980, pursuant to section 18(1) District Courts Amendment Act 1979 (1979 No 125).