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52
Of the Improvement Grants approved, 30 involved the
provision of bathrooms, 2 were concerned with the provision
of main drainage and a further 2 enabled additional accommodation
to be provided.
CERTIFICATES OF DISREPAIR.
The Rent Act, 1957, became operative as from 6th July, 1957.
The first six weeks of this period was mainly concerned with
answering enquiries from landlords and tenants who were affected
by its provisions. This work was largely undertaken by the Clerk.
Applications for Certificates of Disrepair began to be received
in September and within six weeks no fewer than 70 were dealt
with.
The Act requires a tenant to serve on his landlord a schedule
of disrepair and it is upon the items contained therein that the
contents of a Certificate of Disrepair must be based. The
exercise of considerable judgment was necessary to translate the
terms used by tenants into technical language, suitable for the
Local Authority’s Certificate. In instances where tenants had
omitted serious items, or had been precluded from mentioning
them, the matters were taken up with the landlord concerned, under
the Public Health and Housing Acts.
The Act also requires that a notice of intention to grant to a
tenant a Certificate of Disrepair, be sent to the landlord after which
he is permitted a period of three weeks in which to give an undertaking
to carry out work within six months.
Such undertakings were in fact given by landlords in the
majority of cases and observation reveals that a considerable
amount of remedial work is being carried out to houses coming
under this part of the Rent Act.
The following is a summary of work carried out:—
(1) Number of applications for certificates 89
(2) Number of decisions not to issue certificates Nil. (one withdrawn)
(3) Number of decisions to issue certificates:
(a) in respect of some but not all defects 44
(b) in respect of all defects 44
(4) Number of undertakings given by landlords under
paragraph 5 of the First Schedule 65
(5) Number of undertakings refused by Local
Authority under proviso to paragraph 5 of the
First Schedule Nil.
(6) Number of Certificates issued 15
(7) Number of applications for Cancellation of
Certificates Nil.