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46
CUSTOMS AND INLAND REVENUE ACTS.
Applications for certificates under the above Acts in respect to the sanitary
fitness of dwellings for the purpose of obtaining exemption from the payment
of inhabited house duty were received relating to 26 dwellings. In 22 instances
certificates were given, and in 4 they were refused.
HOUSING AND TOWN PLANNING ACT, 1909.
The above Act is now in force. It gives sanitary authorities much extended
powers for dealing with dwelling houses unfit for habitation, or which are not
kept reasonably fit for habitation. A brief reference to some of the principal
sanitary provisions having effect in the administrative Counties of London may
here be made.
In any contract now made for letting for habitation a house or part of a
house at a rent not exceeding £40, there is an implied condition that the house
is and shall be kept by the owner in all respects reasonably fit for human
habitation. There is a proviso exempting houses let on lease for not less than
three years under certain conditions. If it appears to the local authority that
the implied condition in the case of any such house is not complied with
the local authority shall require the landlord within a reasonable time, not less
than 21 days specified in a notice to execute such works as the authority
shall require as being necessary to make the house in all respects reasonably
fit for human habitation. On receipt of such a notice, the landlord may within
21 days do the work, or close the house, or the local authority may at the expiration
of the time specified in the notice given by them to the landlord in the
event of him not taking action, do the work required to be done and recover
the expenses from the landlord as a civi debt, and in the manner laid down
in the Act. The landlord has the right of appeal to the Local Government
Board (Sections 14 and 15). The power of making byelaws with respect to
lodging houses for the working classes is extended (section 16). The
procedure for the closure and demolition of houses is amended. Where a
local authority is satisfied that a dwelling house is unfit for human
habitation it is their duty to make an order prohibiting its use as a
dwelling house. Any owner aggrieved by such an order may appeal to the
Local Government Board. The local authority may determine a closing
order when satisfied that the dwelling house has been made fit for habitation.
If on the application of any owner of a dwelling house the local authority refuse
to determine a closing order, the owner may appeal to the Local Government
Board. In the case of a room habitually used as a sleeping place the surface of
the floor of which is more than three feet below the surface of the part of the
street adjoining or nearest to the room certain conditions as to height, light,