Housing : being the annotated texts of The Housing Act, 1957 and the Housing (Financial Provisions) Act, 1958 / by J.D. James.

  • Great Britain
Date:
1958
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Housing : being the annotated texts of The Housing Act, 1957 and the Housing (Financial Provisions) Act, 1958 / by J.D. James. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    68/596 (page 40)
    No. 109.—HOUSING (b) as regulates the matters to be taken into consideration on an appeal under this Part of this Act in respect of a notice requiring the execution of works to remedy any defects so specified, shall cease to have effect. NOTES History. This section contains provisions formerly in s. 9 (1) and (3) (b) of the Housing Repairs and Rents Act, 1954. Section g (2) and (3) (a) of that Act are not reproduced. In the Housing Act, 1936, as originally enacted, references to a house being fit or unfit for human habitation were sometimes qualified by additional phrases, eé.g., “in all respects reasonably ”’ fit, or ‘‘in any respect’’ unfit (zb7d., ss. 2 (1) and 9g (1) ), or “by reason of disrepair or sanitary defects ’’ (zb7d., ss. 25 (1) and 40 (2) ); and some- times were not so qualified (e.g., zbid., s. 11 (1) ). By s. 188 (4) of that Act, as originally enacted (11 Halsbury’s Statutes (2nd Edn.) 588), it was necessary in determining whether a house was fit to have regard to “ the extent, if any, to which by reason of disrepair or sanitary defects’”’ the house fell below certain bye-law or local Act standards or the general standard of local working class houses. ‘‘ Sanitary defects ”’ were defined by ibid., s. 188 (1). The Housing Repairs and Rents Act, 1954, s. 9 (84 Statutes Supp. 24; 34 Halsbury’s Statutes (2nd Edn.) 269), substituted the test of unfitness reproduced in sub-s. (1), supra. Bys. 54 (4) of, and the Fifth Schedule to, that Act most of the various phrases in the Housing Act, 1936, which had qualified references to fitness or unfitness, were repealed. Those provisions also repealed the definition of “‘ sanitary defects’, and, together with s. 9 (3) (a) of the Act of 1954, they repealed s. 188 (4) of the Act of 1936 (certain words in which, referring to the working classes, had already been repealed by the Housing Act, 1949). Sub-s. (2), supra, reproduces s. 9 (3) (b) of the 1954 Act, which repealed local Act provisions varying the provision of the Housing Act, 1936. It may still be necessary to know the provisions in force before the 1954 Act for two reasons: (i) for the purpose of deciding how far the cases decided under the Housing Act, 1936, or earlier Acts, are still of authority; and (ii) because certain provisions from the Fourth Schedule to the Housing Act, 1936 (11 Halsbury’s Statutes (2nd Edn.) 598), have been reproduced in the Third Schedule, Part III, and the Seventh Schedule, para. 2, to the present Act. These latter provisions contain phrases such as “ defective sanitation ’’ which, it is submitted, still bear their original meaning. General Note. This section introduces Part II of the Act (ss. 4-41) dealing with the repair, demolition or closing, etc., of individual houses. The present section, however, is concerned with the general standard of fitness for human habitation and applies to the whole of the Act. Sub-s. (1), supra, in effect provides a list of matters which are relevant for con- sideration, but does not provide a “‘ definition ’’ or absolute standard. The decision whether a house is unfit or not will fall to be made for the purposes of this Act by a variety of persons, e.g., the medical officer of health, the local authority, the county court judge, the Minister, as the case may be. The duty of such persons is to decide the general question of whether it is “‘ reasonably suitable for occupation’’; in so deciding, regard is to be had to the extent to which it is defective in the particular matters listed in sub-s. (1), and to nothing else. Back-to-back houses; underground rooms. ‘This section does not affect the provisions of s. 5, post, whereunder certain back-to-back houses are deemed to be unfit. The Act of 1954, s. 9 (2) (84 Statutes Supp. 24; 34 Halsbury’s Statutes (2nd Edn.) 270), contained an express saving for the corresponding provision, s. 22 (repealed by the present Act), of the Housing Act, 1936. There was no similar saving for s. 12 (2) of the Act of 1936, dealing with underground rooms. It is respectfully submitted that no saving was needed, in view of the language of the Act. In Critchell v. Lambeth Borough Council, [1957] 2 All E.R. 417; however, cited in the notes to s. 18, post, the Court of Appeal, following an earlier obiter dictum, held that s. 12 (2) of the Act of 1936, now re-enacted ins. 18 (2), post, had been repealed or ‘“‘ superseded ’’. Thereafter the Bill for the present Act was amended by the insertion of the first 26 words of s. 18 (2), which refer to the present section. It is respectfully submitted that Critchell’s case, supra, was wrongly decided and ought not to be followed on the wording of the present Act. Other standards. The Housing Repairs and Rents Act, 1954 (84 Statutes Supp. 1; 34 Halsbury’s Statutes (2nd Edn.) 259), introduced two other standards in addition to that reproduced in the present section. One was that mentioned in s. 23 (repealed by the Rent Act, 1957) as “‘ the conditions justifying an increase of rent’’ for a dwelling- house to which the Rent Acts applied. This required that the dwelling should be in ““ good repair’’ both as respects structure and as respects decoration (having regard to the age, character and locality of the premises) (see zbid., ss. 23 (1), 49 (1) ), and also that it should be reasonably suitable for occupation having regard to the matters now reproduced in paras. (b) to (h) of sub-s. (1), supra. The other standard was a humbler one, in connection with the various powers of retaining and “ patching-up”’ unfit houses introduced by that Act; see now ss. 17 (2), 29 (3), 48 (1), 53 (1), 54 ( x etc. post, referring to accommodation ‘“‘ which is adequate for the time, being ” “ofa standard which is adequate for the time being”’.