View report page

85
for the necessary repairs and alterations. The details in regard to each house are reported at the
•fortnightly meetings which are specially held for this purpose by the Public Health Committee,
who, in necessary cases, give directions for the issue of Statutory Notices with a view to bringing
the houses up to the highest reasonable standard of habitability attainable under present legislation.
The drains are tested in every case and notices served in respect of defects found.
The Temporary Sanitary Inspectors paid 2,929 visits to houses let in lodgings and served 742
Intimation Notices, 145 Statutory Notices and 51 Final Notices.
The ten District Sanitary Inspectors attempt to visit every registered house in their districts at
least once a year with a view to keeping them up to standard.
(2) Improvements in Mews Dwellings.
During the year the ten District Sanitary Inspectors have continued the work commenced in
1925 of inspecting and bringing up to standard the mews dwellings in the Borough. Six hundred
and four had been dealt with by them during 1925 and 375 were inspected in a routine manner in
1926. One hundred and sixty-one Intimation Notices under the Public Health Act were served in
respect of the 375 dwellings inspected. Although there are 2,091 mews dwellings in the Borough,
the routine work of inspecting these will shortly be completed as far as is necessary, for most of the
mews dwellings remaining uninspected are in South Kensington and are in a satisfactory condition
or have in recent years been converted into private houses which are let at good rentals to people
of the professional and semi-professional classes and do not call for the same detailed inspection as
is needed in the case of those mews dwellings occupied by the poorer classes.
'(3) Closing Orders.
One house was closed during 1926 subsequent to the service of a Notice by the Council under
Section 3 of the Housing Act, 1925. This house has now been made fit for habitation.
Six hundred underground rooms were submitted to routine inspection and 44 of these were
reported to the Public Health Committee as not complying with the Council's Regulations. Twenty
were made to comply after an informal Notice had been served and in 24 cases Closing Orders
were issued. None of these Closing Orders was determined during the year.
'(4) Work under Section 3 of the Housing Act, 1925.
Section 28 of the 1919 Act (now repealed) provided that if the owner of a house suitable for
the working classes failed to keep it in all respects reasonably fit for habitation, the Council could
require him to execute such works as were necessary. The owner could appeal, and might, in
certain circumstances, close the house; but if he neither exercised his rights nor carried out the
repairs, the Council could do the work and recover the cost thereof with interest.
Section 28 has been replaced by Section 3 of the Housing Act, 1925, which, in addition to
giving powers similar to those under Section 28, grants to the Council the powers and remedies
of a mortgagee under the Conveyancing Acts, 1881-1922, for the purpose of recovering their
• expenses.
The new Section also defines the appeals of which an owner may take advantage and prescribes
the times within which they must be made, with the result that certain doubts which existed
in regard to the interpretation of Section 28 have been removed, and the Council are able to feel
much more secure in availing themselves of the powers granted.

The total cost to the Council in carrying out repairs under Section 3 in 1926 was £325, and
this, added to the expenditure incurred in connection with this class of work since the commencement
of 1923, gives a total of £1,220. The amount repaid to the Council is £677, and the
remaining sum of £543, with interest at five per cent., is being recovered.