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(b) One Form M application for cancellation of a certificate of
disrepair issued under the Housing Repairs and Rents Act,
1954. As a result of no objection being received from the
tenant following service of Form N the certificate was duly
cancelled.
(c) Eighty-two applications for certificates of disrepair. Of these
5 were refused and 1 deemed inadmissible. Form J notices
were served in respect of the remaining 76 of which 53 specified
some of the defects and 23 specified all the defects as
listed in the copies of Form G. Resulting from these notices
29 certificates of disrepair were issued and, of 48 undertakings
received, one was refused under the proviso giving a total of
47 undertakings accepted.
General.
The provisions of abatement for disrepair appear to be substantially
between landlord and tenant, the local authority where the
occasion arises, assuming the role of arbitrator whose decisions in the
main may be challenged in the County Court by either party.
The procedure is almost entirely different from the previous
legislation. The tenant must specify the existence of defects from
which deletions only are permissible by the local authority following
receipt of an application for a certificate of disrepair. No further
inspections may be made unless an application in respect of an
undertaking or an objection to the cancellation of a certificate is
received.
Since, in either undertaking, there is no obligation on the part
of the landlord or the tenant to apply for a certificate as to whether
or not the defects have been remedied, the effect of the Act as to the
reasonable maintenance of properties may not be easy to assess.
At least no such difficulty arises as to the initial effect on the general
public for enquiries have been numerous both before and after
action taken by the Council and has resulted in considerable additional
work.
Section 22.—This section amends Section 4 (2), (3) of the
Requisitioned Houses and Housing (Amendment) Act, 1955, and
applies the new rent limit to houses which have been released from
requisition on the owner's undertaking to accept the occupant as
a statutory tenant. Notices of increase of rent up to this new limit
must be served on the local authority as well as on the tenant, and