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Housing Act, 1957.
This Act, which came into operation on the 1st September, 1957,
repeals and re-enacts in consolidated form the provisions of the earlier
Housing Acts, with the exception of certain financial provisions.
The Housing Act, 1957, is divided into eight parts which follow
generally the arrangement of the Act of 1936 with the necessary modification
and expansion. Those of principal concern to the Public Health
Department are Parts II, III and IV dealing with the provisions for
securing the repair, maintenance and sanitary condition of houses,
clearance and redevelopment, and abatement of overcrowding respectively.
Section 4 of Part II re-enacts the definition of the standard of fitness
introduced by the Housing Repairs and Rents Act, 1954, which listed
the several matters to be taken into account in determining whether a
house is unfit, and replaced the somewhat uncertain definition contained in
the principal Act of 1936, now largely repealed.
This definition is of prime importance in relation to all proceedings
under Parts II and III mentioned above and, therefore, in relation to
the repair, demolition and closure of unfit properties, as well as activities
directed towards clearance and redevelopment of areas of unfit properties.
In view of the very considerable number of closing orders that have
been made in respect of basement rooms in the City, under the provisions
of the Housing Acts 1930 and 1936, attention should perhaps be drawn
to the comprehensive saving provision of Section 191 of the 1957 Act,
which secures continuity of action by enacting, inter alia, that anything
done under a repealed enactment shall have effect as if done under the
corresponding provision of the new Act..
Rent Act, 1957—Certificates of Disrepair.
The first application for a certificate of disrepair was made on the
14th September, by which time the Rent Act, 1957, had been operating
for two months. This Act repealed the provisions of the Housing
Repairs and Rents Act, 1954, regarding these certificates. It enacted a
new procedure for a tenant under a controlled tenancy who desires to
resist an increase in rent on the grounds of the existence of defects.
These he must specify, in a notice served by him on the landlord.
If, after the expiration of six weeks from the date of service of such
notice, any of the defects remain unremedied, and the landlord has not
given an undertaking to remedy those defects, the tenant may apply
to the local authority for a certificate of disrepair.