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137
approaching the owner in a personal way before issuing legal
notices against him has considerable advantages to recommend it,
and affords the owner ample opportunity of discharging his duties
to his property and tenants. I have to report that in the following
five areas in which this course has been adopted it has resulted in
each case in the owner himself undertaking the necessary sanitary
repair rather than the Local Authority. This is, in my judgment,
as it should be. Property has its duties as well as its rights. In
the event of non-compliance, or non-acceptance of responsibility
for the insanitary conditions existing, it would, of course, be
necessary for me to advise the Borough Council to proceed with
strictness against such owners.
Particulars of these five areas appear in my Report for 1902
(p. 140), and it ill therefore only be necessary to report present
position and changes during the year.
Area A. -An area near Sermon Lane containing 12 houses
and a population of 53. Closure and demolition was commenced
and completed during 1902.
Area B consists of two small courts, Caroline Place and
Kemp Place, Baker's Row.
The floors, walls and roofs were defective, the paving of the
yards in a bad condition, no through ventilation for the houses,
and defective drainage. The owners, while admitting the serious
defects and insanitation, believed that they could remedy the
condition of things by extensive repairs. Works have therefore
been carried out extending over several months, and a number of
the sanitary defects have been rectified. This attempt has not
been made by my advice, and it remains to be seen how far the
eight houses will be made really habitable. There can be no
doubt at all that the property has been greatly improved.
Wherever possible effort should be made to improve residential
property rather than close it, and I view with satisfaction any
such remedial works as these if they are adequate and result in
making houses habitable within the meaning of the law.