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65
The implied contract that a house should be kept by the landlord reasonably
fit for human habitation during the holding became under the 1925
Housing Act, an obligation on the owner of property not exceeding a
certain rental to see that the house would be kept in all respects reasonably
fit for human habitation. At the same time it was made the duty of
the local authority to cause inspections to be made from time to time
with a view to ascertaining whether any dwelling-house was in a state so
dangerous or injurious to health as to be unfit for human habitation,
and a duty of the Medical Officer of Health to report such houses to the
local authority.
The procedure under this Act for dealing with groups of houses was
replaced by the machinery of the 1936 Housing Act. The "clearance
areas" under this Act were groups of dwelling-houses which by reason
of disrepair or sanitary defects were unfit for human habitation, or which
by reason of bad arrangement or of the narrowness or bad arrangement
of the streets were dangerous or injurious to the health of the inhabitants
and which were more satisfactorily dealt with by the demolition of all
the buildings. Steps could also be taken to demolish an individual
dwelling-house unfit for human habitation.
Apart from the structural state of houses, conditions of living may
be unsatisfactory because of overcrowding. The Housing Act, 1936,
was the first great effort to tackle this problem on a national scale. An
obligation was imposed on every local authority to cause an inspection
to be made with a view to ascertaining what dwelling-houses were overcrowded,
and to submit proposals for providing new houses to abate the
overcrowding. The degree of crowding which could occur before the
house was statutorily overcrowded was very high, this standard having
to be adopted because of the appalling conditions obtaining in parts of
the country. It was accepted that when circumstances had permitted
the abatement of most of the crowding according to that standard, a
higher criterion would be adopted.
It will be seen then that it is the duty of the authority to cause
inspection of properties to be made, the so-called routine inspections.
Where housing defects are found, the question to be settled is whether
repairs could be reasonably required, in which case the owners were
approached; or if not, then steps are taken to obtain a demolition order
in the case of a single house or a clearance order in the case of a group of
houses. In regard to overcrowding approach is made to both owner and
tenant, whilst many owners request the authority to give them a certificate
of the permitted number of occupants.
This routine inspection accounts for only part of the work of the
sanitary inspector in regard to housing. To an increasing extent their
help is sought by tenants who complain of some structural fault. Since
amalgamation, progress had been made in the eradication of the poorer
classes of habitation in the district. Concurrently, repairs were being
carried out to quite a high standard. The overcrowding survey showed
hat there was comparatively little statutory overcrowding in the district.
The war soon altered this relatively satisfactory housing situation.
Shortage of labour and shortage of material restricted action under the
Housing Acts, quite apart from the shortage of inspectors to carry out