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INSPECTION OF HOUSES FOR PURPOSES OF PART I AND II
OF HOUSING ACT, 1937
The Public Health Committee was informed in July, 1960 that
regular house to house inspection under the Housing Acts, which was
carried on more or less continuously during the period 1946 to 1958,
had been discontinued owing to the pressure of other work. During
the period mentioned several hundred houses were brought by the
owners to a proper state of repair and habitability so far as the law
required.
It is nevertheless the statutory duty of a local authority regularly
to inspect the houses within its district to ascertain whether any are
unfit for human habitation.
The Officers to whom these duties (inter alia) are assigned come to
know their districts intimately, and can identify the black spots, and
as easily determine those areas where their services are unlikely to be
required in this particular connection. It will be obvious that, in any
district, parts of the area may be disregarded completely, leaving
attention to be paid to the black spots, and the potential black spots
of the foreseeable future.
In common with all districts, Beckenham has its black spots,
but the emphasis here is on the potential rather than the existing,
largely because of the work completed during 1946 to 1958.
In an endeavour to find out whether there is a need for a resumption
of regular house inspection, a sport check was undertaken. 376
houses were visited, and answers were obtained to the following
questions :—
1. Do public health nuisances exist which require urgent
attention.
2. Is the house unfit for human habitation within the meaning
of the Housing Act, 1957.
3. Has the rent been increased as a result of the 1957 Rent Act.
4. If so, has the tenant obtained a Certificate of Disrepair.
Where a house visited was found to be owner-occupied, no
inspection was made.
The survey shows that 121 or 32.1 % of the 376 houses visited are
owner-occupied. This figure is noteworthy, and surely indicative that
the stability and repair of these older houses in the Borough is satisfactory,
particularly as many will be mortgaged to Building Societies,
or the local authority, and thus have been subject to strict survey within
the last two or three years. It is also of interest as an index to the
changing pattern of living standards, for a few years ago the percentage
of owner-occupied houses in these roads was negligible.
This information left us with 255 houses which were inspected
in relation to the four questions above.
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