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63 1938
(iii) No room under 50 square feet is counted.
(iv) Rooms occupied by a sub-tenant must be regarded as a separate dwellinghouse.
(v) In measuring the rooms, the floor area is measured at the level of the
floor, and includes bay window extensions and space taken up by cupboards and
projecting chimney-breasts ; but where the height of the ceiling above the floor
does not exceed five feet, then the floor area below that part of the ceiling is
excluded.
4. Duties of Landlords.
(a) It is the duty of the landlord to prevent his dwelling-house from becoming
overcrowded, and the landlord will be deemed to have caused or permitted a dwellinghouse
to be overcrowded—
(i) If, after the Borough Council has notified him or his agent in writing that
the house is overcrowded, he fails to take all reasonable steps to secure the abatement
of such overcrowding, by the removal of a tenant or tenants, including
legal proceedings for the recovery of possession of the house, or
(ii) If, when letting the house after 1st October, 1938, he or his agent (a)
had reasonable cause to believe that it would become overcrowded, or (b) failed
to make inquiries of the proposed occupier as to the number, age and sex of persons
who would be allowed to sleep in the house.
Where a house is overcrowded, the Rent and Mortgage Interest Restrictions
Acts, 1920 to 1933, will not prevent the landlord from recovering possession, but
after recovery of possession the Acts will continue to apply to that house.
(b) Where, after 1st October, 1938, it comes to the knowledge of the landlord
of a house or his agent that the house has become overcrowded, such landlord or
agent must within seven days of obtaining such knowledge inform the Borough
Council. This provision does not apply to overcrowding which already existed on
1st October, 1938. (See para. 6 hereof.)
(c) As from 1st October, 1938, every rent book or other similar document used
in relation to a dwelling-house must contain the following summary of the provisions
of the Act relating to overcrowding, including a statement of the number of persons
permitted to sleep in the house:—
(i) After the 1st day of October, 1938, an occupier who causes or permits
his dwelling to be overcrowded is liable to prosecution for an offence under the
Housing Act, 1936, and, if convicted, to a fine not exceeding five pounds. Any
part of a house which is occupied by a separate family is a " dwelling."
(ii) A dwelling is overcrowded if the number of persons sleeping in it is
more than the " permitted number," or is such that two or more of those persons,
being ten years old or over, of opposite sexes (not being persons living together
as husband and wife) must sleep in the same room.
(iii) The " permitted number " for the dwelling to which this (Rent Book)
( ) relates is persons. In counting the number of persons
each child under ten years of age counts as half a person, and a child of less than
one year is not counted at all.