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The adoption of this standard has meant that houses in both Hornsey and Tottenham which had in
the past been inspected and Drought up to the standard then in operation in those boroughs, may be lacking
in some amenities of the new code. Most important is that provision of baths and hot water is now required.
Since April, the inspectors have completely inspected 521 houses. Of these 193 were found to be
satisfactory. 56 cases of penal over crowding were found, but it was only necessary to serve formal notices
under Section 78 of the Housing Act 1959 in 14 of these cases. Action to deal with other matters in houses
in multiple occupation during this time, e.g. nuisances under the Public Health Act 1936, choked drains,
etc., necessitated the service of 197 other notices.
Progress is being made with the provision of additional amenities, but each case requires individual
assessment and very often protracted negotiation and correspondence with owners, agents, and sometimes
principal tenants where they are responsible for the multiple occupation of a house.
House to house inspections could be carried out in many areas if the staff were available, but this
work has had to be confined to a few roads and is constantly interrupted by the inspectors concerned
having to deal with serious conditions in other properties.
One of the problems associated with this work arises from the physical limitations of the houses
whereby it may not be possible to install a bath and/or W.C. in a house having regard to its occupation
at the time of inspection. A number of occasions have arisen where this has been found to be impossible
and the procedure of making a "Direction" under Section 19 of the Housing Act 1961 to deal with the overoccupation
of the house in relation to the amenities existing by specifying the number of people who may
live there, has been employed in some cases. "Nil Directions" in respect of a part of a house have also
been used in order to ensure that when the particular part of the house becomes vacant it shall remain
vacant until the facilities necessary to bring the house up to standard can be installed in that particular
room or rooms; e.g. the provision of extra baths or W.Cs.
The Fire Prevention Officer has been consulted in regard to the requirements of Section 16 of the
Housing Act 1961 (escape in case of fire). The normal procedure has been to arrange a meeting at the
premises with the owner and the public health inspector so that there is no doubt as to the recommendation
put forward by the Fire Officer and suggested alternatives can be discussed on site.
Informal action in pointing out to owners their obligations under Section 12 of the Housing Act 1961
relating to Management Orders has frequently resulted in improved conditions and it has only been necessary
to make Management Orders in two cases. Although notices of the intention to make such Orders were
served in a number of other cases, work was carried out and conditions improved sufficiently between the
service of the notices and the date of the Committee meeting to obviate the need for Orders. Procedure
under this section is somewhat lengthy and every effort is made to get work done by negotiation in the
first instance.
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