View report page

135
which are unfit for human habitation. In dealing with such houses
the procedure to be adopted must depend upon a variety of circumstances.
In some cases it is preferable to proceed under the
Housing Act (Part ii.), in other cases under the Public Health
(London) Act, which is also enforceable by the Local Authority.
These two Acts furnish the Borough Council with considerable
powers, of which it should avail itself if necessary.
Before advising the Council to put these powers into force, I
have made it my duty to see the owner in each of the followingareas,
and have fully set before him, or his solicitors, the various
defects of the property. Further, I have pointed out, where
necessary in unmistakable terms, that unless the owner himself
would sufficiently repair or close the properties in question, it
would be necessary for me to proceed under the Acts abovementioned.
It has seemed to me that this method of first
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
eight 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.
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, containing 8 houses and a population of 39.
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