CHAPTER XXIV.
ARTIZANS AND LABOURERS’ DWELLINGS, &c.
The Artizans and Labourers’ Dwellings Act 1868 (31 & 32 Vic. c. 130) was in effect incorporated in the Public Health Act 1875 so that “every urban authority shall within their district, . . . have, exercise and be subject to all the powers, rights, duties, capacities, liabilities, and obligations within such district exercisable or attaching by and to the local authority” (38 & 39 Vic. c. 55, s. 10).
The mode of procedure is as follows:
Where the “officer of health”[199] finds any premises in a condition or state dangerous to health so as to be unfit for human habitation, he shall report the same in writing to the clerk of the local authority. The local authority must then refer such report to a surveyor or engineer,[200] who shall thereupon consider the report so furnished to him, and report to the local authority what is the cause of the evil so reported on, and if such evil is occasioned by defects in any premises, whether the same can be remedied by structural alterations and improvements or otherwise, or whether such premises or any or what part thereof ought to be demolished (31 & 32 Vic. c. 130, s. 6).
Upon the receipt of this report from the surveyor the local authority sends copies to the owner of the premises, giving him opportunities of attending before them and of appealing against the report, and if his objections are overruled, a plan and specification of the works (if any) and an estimate of the cost of such works, must be prepared by the surveyor, and these in turn may be inspected by the owner and objected to by him in writing, and he may also attend before the local authority, and if he makes good his objections the local authority may direct the plan, specification and estimate to be amended, and the works would then be executed in accordance with the amended plans, &c. (31 & 32 Vic. c. 130, s. 8).
Persons who are aggrieved by any order of the local authority may appeal against it, but failing this, if the owner does not within two months diligently proceed with and complete the same in conformity with the specification to the satisfaction of the surveyor, the local authority may either order the premises to be shut up, or to be demolished, or may themselves execute the required works in conformity with the specification (31 & 32 Vic. c. 130, s. 18).
If the requirements of the order involve the total demolition and not the improvement of the premises, the owner shall within three months proceed to take down and remove them, and if he fail to do so, then the local authority may pull down and recoup the expenses by a sale of the old material (31 & 32 Vic. c. 130, s. 20).
The above Act was amended in 1879 by the “Artizans and Labourers’ Dwellings Act (1868) Amendment Act 1879” (42 & 43 Vic. c. 64), the most important clause affecting the action of the town surveyor being as follows:
“Notwithstanding anything in the Act of 1868, the owner of any premises specified in an order of the local authority made under that Act, and requiring him to execute any works or to demolish such premises, may within three months after service on him of the order, require the local authority in writing to purchase such premises” (42 & 43 Vic. c. 64, s. 5).