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even if it be only one room, can be required to comply with the
standards as set out in Section 4 of the Act. Reasonable
compliance with this Section is taken to be that there shall be
a piped water supply with a sink and proper drainage for each
"house" and that the watercloset shall be reasonably accessible
and available, meaning that it shall not be at a further distance
than one storey of the building from the floor or floors on which
the "house" is situated, it shall not be necessary to pass through
a room or rooms let to another person and that the watercloset
shall not be shared by more families than is reasonable. The
standard for the number of families to share a watercloset has
been agreed by all Metropolitan Borough Councils and is that
where practicable there should be one watercloset per family and
that as a minimum there should be one watercloset for eight
persons or for four rooms.
There are, however, several severe drawbacks to this
procedure, the first being delay. Under the nuisance procedure
an intimation notice can be served at once and a statutory notice
as soon as approval is given by the Public Health Committee and
in practice the majority of cases are dealt with without the
necessity of serving a statutory notice. Under Section 9, the
notice cannot be served until the case has been considered by the
Committee and as the Council may in the future be involved in
some liability if the work is carried out in default, it is
generally necessary to serve a notice under Section 170 of the
Housing Act, 1957 to ensure that there is full and correct information
as to the ownership of the property.
It is also necessary to carry out a detailed survey of the
whole house, to prepare a schedule of works to be done and to
make an estimate of the cost of these works. A valuation of the
property must also be obtained because the Committee must be
satisfied that the work can be done at reasonable cost before the
notice is served. In deciding whether the repairs can be carried
out at a reasonable cost the Council, having regard to a number
of Court decisions, has decided that where the cost of repairs
is less than 70 per cent, of the value that the house would have
when the repairs are done, this may be considered reasonable.
A reasonable time must be allowed for the work to be done and
this must be not less than three weeks and where a good deal
has to be done a longer period must be allowed.