[200] The town surveyor is usually employed for this work.
[201] Vide ‘Industrial Dwellings from a Sanitary point of View,’ by John Price, Resident Agent, Newcastle-on-Tyne Industrial Dwellings Company, read September 28th, at the Congress of the Institute, held at Newcastle-on-Tyne.
CHAPTER XXV.
DEFECTS IN DWELLING-HOUSES, &C.
There are many defects in dwelling-houses with which it is the duty of the sanitary inspector to deal, such as the Bakehouse Regulations Act, offensive trades, nuisances rendering houses unfit for human habitation, &c., but I propose to give in this chapter, in addition to those with which I have already dealt, such subjects under this head as come within the duties of the town surveyor.
The first which I propose to treat is that of the question of
Cellar Dwellings.
—These are at all times objectionable even if the clauses of the Public Health Act 1875 be strictly carried out, and the surveyor should discourage them as much as possible. Nothing more can be said with reference to them than is contained in the provisions of the above Act, which are as follows:[202]
“It shall not be lawful to let or occupy or suffer to be occupied separately as a dwelling, any cellar (including for the purposes of this Act in that expression any vault or underground room) built or rebuilt after the passing of this Act, or which is not lawfully so let or occupied at the time of the passing of this Act” (38 & 39 Vic. c. 55, s. 71).
And with regard to existing cellar dwellings they are only to be let or occupied on the following conditions:—