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From the time the council commenced enforcing the repair of houses by the service of Housing
Act notices up to the 31st December, 1937, they have expended £5,487 18s. 2d. in carrying out
work following default by owners. Of this sum, £5,075 9s. has been recovered, and the outstanding
amount of £412 9s. 2d., with interest, is being collected by instalments. The total expenditure
by the council during 1937 in executing repairs was £485 13s.
In the past fifteen years 1,610 houses have been repaired under Housing Act procedure.
Certificates of Fitness of Houses.
Section 51 of the Housing Act, 1936, says that any owner of a house, which is occupied, or of a
type suitable for occupation, by persons of the working classes, and in respect of which works of
improvement (otherwise than by way of decoration or repair) or structural alterations are proposed
to be executed, may submit a list of the proposed works to the council with a request in writing
that he be informed whether in the opinion of the council, the house would, after the execution
of those works (and other specified works if required), be in all respects fit for human habitation,
and would with reasonable care and maintenance remain so fit for a period of at least five years.
Where the council are of the opinion mentioned above, the owner is entitled, after executing
the works, to a certificate stating that the house is fit for habitation and will remain fit with
reasonable care and maintenance for a period not less than five nor more than 10 years.
During the year, seven houses were considered under this section of the Act ; in two cases
the council decided to grant certificates for periods of six years, and in the remaining five cases
the certificates specified periods of five years.
Permitted Use of Closed Rooms.
During the year applications were received for permission to use 113 closed rooms or parts of
houses, and the following table gives a summary of the purposes approved by the council:—
Day living rooms 27
Bathrooms 22
Clothes-drying rooms 21
Kitchen-sculleries 20
Dining rooms 10
Storage 8
In connection with business premises 4
Total 112
One application to use a closed room as a kitchen was refused.
Overcrowding.
Under the Housing Act, 1936, a dwelling-house is deemed to be overcrowded when the number
of persons sleeping in the house either :—
(a) is such that any two of those persons, being ten years old or more, of opposite sexes and not
being persons living together as husband and wife, must sleep in the same room ; or
(b) is, in relation to the number and floor area of the rooms in the house, in excess of the
permitted number of persons as defined in the fifth schedule of the Act.
A child under one year is not counted, and a child between the ages of one and ten years is
regarded as half a unit.
The following is the schedule referred to under heading (b) :—
The expression " the permitted number of persons" means, in relation to any
dwelling-house, either—
(a) the number specified in the second column of Table I in the annex hereto in relation
to a house consisting of the number of rooms of which that house consists ; or,
(b) the aggregate for all the rooms in the house obtained by reckoning, for each room
therein of the floor area specified in the first column of Table II in the annex hereto,
the number specified in the second column of that table in relation to that area,
whichever is the less—
provided that in computing for the purposes of the said Table I the number of rooms in
a house, no regard shall be had to anv room ha vine a floor area of less than 50 sauare feet.
Table I.
Where a house consists of:—
one room
2 units
two rooms
3 „
three rooms
5 „
four rooms
7½ „
five rooms
10—with an additional two in respect of each room in excess
of five.