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INSPECTION AND REPAIR OF HOUSES.
Activities to secure the repair of dwellings and the
remedy of particular defects continue to account for a
substantial amount of the Department's efforts.
Inspections are made either as a routine in the investigation
of housing conditions, following complaints by occupiers,
or as a result of statements made by applicants for housing
accommodation. The volume of work in this direction has
not diminished, whilst considerations, mainly financial, have
made it necessary to five more time and effort to individual
properties in order to secure essential repairs which are
often delayed longer than we would wish. Many of the
accumulated defects of the war and immediate post-war years
have now been made good, but there remains a core of properties
which presents a continuous problem and in which one type of
defect is no sooner remedied than another is revealed.
The practice usually followed in dealing with unsatisfactory
houses is to indicate in the form of an Intimation Notice the
particular repairs required and where possible a meeting is
arranged with the owner or agent at the premises when the
conditions can be demonstrated and discussed and the method
and extent of repair agreed. In most instances the repairs
were carried out as a result of this informal action and in
comparatively few instances was it necessary to serve
Statutory Notices under the Housing or Public Health Acts.
In no case was it necessary to proceed with legal action to
enforce compliance with a Notice, but at the end of the year
an Appeal under the Housing Act to the Court, in respect of
a requirement for the carrying out of repairs, was outstanding.

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