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89
in an overcrowded house, wrote for instance on the 12th December, 1928, complaining
that ' 'The work to stop the rain from coming into the rooms was ordered last March
and never has been done." This tenant also wrote, "I do not think I have been
treated fairly as I pay all the rates and taxes and also forty-five per cent, increase of
rent for repairs and this house was not done up when I moved into it, now some
twelve years ago." Subsequently considerable correspondence took place with the
Property Owners' Protection Association. I will not again set out the correspondence,
but I will repeat the summary which was contained in my Report for 1928, which
was as follows:—
"It will be apparent, from the correspondence, that throughout these
proceedings
1. The Property Owners' Association did not endeavour to have these
premises put into a satisfactory condition at any time.
2. The Association requested a Completion of Work Certificate while,
in fact, the workmen were in the house, and on several occasions before the work
had been performed.
3. The difficulty of getting these premises put into a satisfactory condition
was enhanced by the fact that the Property Owners' Association were prepared
to accept any statement by the owner, and act on it without really satisfying
themselves as to whether the work was complete. There is no doubt that the
tenant has been badly treated, and not the slightest sympathy was shown by
the Property Owners' Association, who, even from the point of view of keeping
property in a sound condition, should have given proper advice to the owner.
4. The Committee can appreciate, from this case, the sympathy shown by
the Property Owners' Association, for 'botching,' which causes so much trouble
to tenants and is the bugbear of those endeavouring to preserve decent housing
accommodation in their districts.
5. The waste of time and trouble experienced by this department is shown
by the fact that in order to get these premises put into passable condition it was
necessary to serve notices under the Public Health (London) Act, and the Rent
Restrictions Act, and that the District Surveyor had to serve and enforce a
notice. Twenty-three visits were paid by the Sanitary Staff, and in addition to
the service of notices there were, of course, reports to the Committee, and
correspondence.''
It will be noted that 23 visits were required by the Sanitary Staff. Fortunately,
there are owners who recognise their duty to their tenants, and carry out their
obligations without any prompting, and if something has been overlooked, act on
an Intimation Notice from my Department without delay. The Council has at all
times endeavoured to help owners who wished to place dwellings in satisfactory
condition but lacked the means. In those cases quotations have been obtained from
builders, the expense met by the Council, and the money repaid by instalments
according to the circumstances of the case.
Since the experts fought so hard to retain in Hackney the evils depicted in the
Architects' Journal of October, 1933, it would be interesting to know which evils
they can be "anxious to remove."
It has been found on several occasions at Inquiries that owners have put forward
large bills of costs to show how willing they have been to spend money on repairs,
but on examination it has appeared that the money was spent as the result of
"Dangerous Structure" notices, served by the London County Council, in other
words that the owners had waited until the structure had become so dangerous that
they were informed that it would eventually be pulled down by the County Council,
and thereupon took action themselves.