View report page

24
Under the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions)
Act, 1920, the tenant of a house not in a reasonable state of repair
could obtain a certificate to this effect from the Sanitary Authority
which entitled him to deduct the permitted increase of rent, but in
order to obtain this relief action had to be taken by the tenant at
the County Court, and as a result there was no eagerness to take
advantage of this concession.
The new Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act in
1923, however, amended the previous Act, so that it was no longer
necessary for tenants to take proceedings at the County Court, but
a copy of the certificate had to be served on the landlord who could,
if the work was completed satisfactorily, obtain a certificate to
this effect from the sanitary authority on payment of 1s. The
control of rents by the Rents Acts was bitterly resented by some
of the owners of properties as an interference with their considered
right to exploit the existing housing shortage to their own advantage,
and at that time an owner of property bringing in approximately
£2,000 a year in small sums varying from 9s. to 12s. weekly,
informed me that when the Act expired steps would be taken as
regards this particular housing property, not only to raise the rent,
but also to induce the tenants to sign repairing agreements.
One such agreement which an incoming tenant was required
to sign contained the following clause:—
"I agree and undertake to do all necessary repairs and to
keep the drains, soil and other pipes and sanitary and water
apparatus in good, sufficient and tenantable repair and
condition.''
I was informed that there was nothing to prevent this procedure
being adopted on a large scale; in fact, this defence of non-responsibility
of the owner as the result of repairing agreements was
raised on several occasions.
In my report for 1923 I made reference to the difficulty of
securing an adequate standard of living accommodation, and
wrote
"If the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, could
be amended so that the conditions described in the Ministry
of Health "Manual on Unfit Houses" as being necessary for a
fit house could be enforced under the nuisances sections of this
Act a great step forward would be made. Section 28 of the
Housing and Town Planning, etc., Act, 1919, as amended by
Section 10 of the Housing, etc., Act, 1923, does not give the
local authorities power to improve housing to any appreciable
extent unless they are prepared to meet the cost out of the
rates. It should be possible to induce owners of housing
property to attend to such matters as the provision of 'adequate
facilities for preparing and cooking food,' and the Housing