Act did not reintroduce control of a house in the middle-value band that the 1933 Act had decontrolled, but the landlord had to get it registered as decontrolled within three months. Failure on the part of the landlord to meet the three-month deadline meant that the houses were deemed to be still controlled, unless the courts excused his failure to do so within one year from the passing of the Act. For the first time, in defining the application of the Act, there was no reference to rent limits. Because rateable values were now the sole criterion for the continued applicability of the Acts, the result was decontrol of a large number of houses where the recoverable rent would have kept them in control. 1939 to 1945 Full control again 1939 to 1945 Just when it must have seemed that the end of control was in sight, the threat of war revived fears of the excessive rent increases that led to the initial introduction of control in 1915, the Rent and Mortgage Interest Restrictions Act 1939 was introduced. Scope of control All dwellings not already subject to control, and with rateable values that did not exceed £100 in London, £90 in Scotland and £75 elsewhere were brought back into control. It also brought to an end the creeping decontrol under the 1933 Act (whereby the landlord had been able to obtain vacant possession or decontrol had come about by the grant of a two-year lease or tenancy). The form of control introduced for the newly controlled dwellings differed from that previously in existence and they became "new control" and "old control" respectively. The distinction is no longer of importance, now that "control" has been replaced by "regulation". For the first time local authority dwellings were excluded from control. Like its First World War predecessor, the Second World War legislation was only intended to continue in force "the principal Acts" until six months after the emergency ended. These were the Rent And Mortgage Interest Restrictions Acts 1920 - 1938 and were due to expire in 1942. The Order in Council that should have declared the end of the emergency was never made, and the Acts, as amended, continued in force until 1968 (1971 in Scotland). 1945 to 1957 The post-war period In the aftermath of wartime bomb damage, shortage of materials and building restrictions, the increased demand for homes from those