The Short Title of this Act is “The Lodgers’ Goods Protection Act, 1880.”

If any superior landlord shall levy or authorize to be levied a distress on any goods or chattels of any lodger for arrears of rent due to such superior landlord by his immediate tenant, such lodger may serve such superior landlord, or the bailiff or other person employed by him to levy such distress, with a declaration in writing made by such lodger setting forth that such immediate tenant has no right of property or beneficial interest in the goods or chattels so distrained or threatened to be distrained upon, and that such goods or chattels are the property or in the lawful possession of such lodger, and also setting forth whether any and how much rent is due, and for what period, from such lodger to his immediate landlord; and such lodger may pay to the superior landlord, or to the bailiff or other person employed by him as aforesaid, the rent, if any, so due as last aforesaid, or so much thereof as shall be sufficient to discharge the claim of such superior landlord; and to such declaration shall be annexed a correct inventory, subscribed by the lodger, of the goods and chattels referred to in the declaration; and if any lodger shall make or subscribe such declaration and inventory knowing the same or either of them to be untrue in any material particular, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour.

If any superior landlord, or any bailiff or other person employed by him, shall, after being served with the before-mentioned declaration and inventory, and after the lodger shall have paid or tendered to such superior landlord, bailiff, or other person the rent, if any, which by the last preceding section such lodger is authorized to pay, levy or proceed with a distress on the furniture, goods, or chattels of the lodger, such superior landlord, bailiff, or other person shall be deemed guilty of an illegal distress, and the lodger may apply to a Justice of the Peace for an order for the restoration to him of such goods and chattels; and such application shall be heard before a Resident Magistrate, or before two Justices in places where there is no Resident Magistrate; and such Magistrate or two Justices shall inquire into the truth of such declaration and inventory, and shall make such order for the recovery of the goods and chattels or otherwise as to him or them may seem just; and the superior landlord shall also be liable to an action at law at the suit of the lodger, in which action the truth of the declaration and inventory may likewise be inquired into.

Any payment made by any lodger pursuant to the second section of this Act shall be deemed a valid payment on account of any rent due from him to his immediate landlord.

An appeal from any decision given under this Act shall lie, and may be had on the same grounds and subject to the same conditions as an appeal from the decision of a Resident Magistrate in his civil jurisdiction, and all provisions for the time being in force relating to procedure and costs of such an appeal shall apply.