ABSTRACT
This statute76 seeks to fix a maximum rent payable in respect of certain dwelling houses which were let as at 31 December 1978, or, where at that date the house was not let, at the commencement of the first letting after that date. The maximum rent is the ‘base rent’, which is $1,000 per month in the case of an unfurnished dwelling and $1,500 per month in the case of a furnished dwelling. The tenant is not precluded from applying to the Rent Assessment Board to fix the standard rent of a dwelling house subject to the Rent Restriction Act, Ch 59:50. A standard rent may be less than the base rent, but the Board cannot increase the standard rent beyond the base rent; and, as Persaud JA pointed out in Crevelle v Agana,77 it was the clear intention of the legislature that Ch 59:50 and Ch 59:55 should be read together.
