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69
House Repairs.—In my annual report for 1922 I
gave a very full and detailed account of the Council's
activities under Section 28 of the Housing, Town Planning,
etc., Act, 1919.
Following upon the legal difficulties of enforcing
this Section the Public Health Committee decided
to proceed as a general rule in regard to house repairs
under the Public Health (London) Act, and only to
use Section 28 of the Housing Act in exceptional cases.
As a matter of fact, only two statutory notices were
served under Section 28 during the year, and the local
Authority did not proceed to carry out repairs in default
of the owner in any case.
It has been suggested that Section 10 (2) of the
Housing, etc., Act, 1923, might remedy some of the
difficulties which had previously been encountered,
but in the opinion of the Borough Solicitor, this section
would only partially help matters, and would still
leave open several of the awkward results which we
previously encountered in administering Section 28.
For example, one of our great difficulties was that,
despite the fact that the owner has the right of appeal
to the Ministry of Health, and although he failed to
avail himself of that right, when the Council took
action against the owner in the police court for the
recovery of expenses the Magistrate decided to hear
the whole evidence, both as regards the terms of the
Statutory Notice, the work done and the expenses
charged. As a result, the Council on several occasions
found themselves out of pocket, as the sum awarded
by the Magistrate was lower than the actual expenditure
by the Council. Section 10 (2) (b) of the Housing
etc., Act, 1923, does not appear to touch the powers
of a Magistrate in this regard, although it lays down
very clearly the powers of the Ministry of Health in
regard to an owner's appeal to that body.
Apart altogether from any legal difficulties regarding
expenses, there are all the other difficulties encountered
in dealing with the practical application of Section 28,