This Act may be cited as the Lyttelton Borough Empowering Act 1976.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—

The land described in the Schedule to this Act shall remain subject to all leases, encumbrances, liens, or easements to which it is subject at the commencement of this Act, but shall otherwise be freed and discharged from all trusts, reservations, and restrictions affecting the same.

Nothing in this Act shall in any way affect the rights of the lessees under existing leases of the said land.

Where any part of the said land has, whether before or after the commencement of this Act, been leased, the Corporation, acting through the Council, may sell for cash and transfer to the lessee thereof the fee simple of the land comprised in the lease:

Provided that at the time of such sale and transfer a residential building is erected on the land which in the opinion of the Council (whose decision shall be final) is designed for and occupied exclusively as a self-contained home or residence by the lessee and his family and that simultaneously such lessee at his own cost and to the satisfaction of the Council arranges for the registration of the effective merger of his leasehold interest in the fee simple or otherwise for the effective extinguishment of his leasehold interest.

The price payable upon any such sale shall be the current unimproved value of the land, either as determined by a valuer registered under the Valuers Act 1948 or as fixed by arbitration in manner provided by the Arbitration Act 1908, together with—

Where the lessee elects to have the value fixed by arbitration, then notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in the Arbitration Act 1908, all costs of the reference and award including arbitrators’ and umpires’ fees and charges shall be paid by the lessee; and the arbitrator or arbitrators and umpire shall be valuers registered under the Valuers Act 1948.

In subsection (2) of this section, the terms “unimproved value” and “improvements” shall have the same meanings as they had in the Valuation of Land Act 1951 immediately before the commencement of the Valuation of Land Amendment Act (No. 2) 1970.

Where the fee simple estate in any part of the land described in the Schedule hereto is sold by the Council to the lessee thereof under section 4 of this Act, the net proceeds of sale received by the Council shall for all purposes be deemed to be part of the general revenues of the district under section 84 of the Municipal Corporations Act 1954.

On application by or on behalf of the Corporation, the District Land Registrar for the Canterbury Land Registration District shall, without fee, enter on every certificate of title for the land described in the Schedule to this Act a memorial that the land is freed from all trusts, restrictions, and reservations imposed by the Borough of Lyttelton Corporation Enabling Act 1929; and the said District Land Registrar is hereby empowered and directed to do all such other things as may be necessary to give effect to this Act.

The Borough of Lyttelton Corporation Enabling Act 1929 is hereby repealed.