Housing Act 1964

39 Provisions as to carrying out of works

(1) The person having control of any premises—(a) which consist of or comprise a dwelling in an improvement area which is without all or any of the standard amenities, or

(b) which consist of or comprise a dwelling in respect of which representations have been made by the tenant under section 19(1) of this Act, or

(c) which consist of a tenement block in respect of which a preliminary notice has been served,

shall, as against any other person having an estate or interest in the premises, have the right to enter the premises in order to carry out any survey or examination required with a view to providing the dwelling or, as the case may be, any of the dwellings in the tenement block, with any of the standard amenities.

(2) After service of an immediate improvement notice or a final improvement notice in respect of any dwelling or tenement block, the person having control of the dwelling or, as the case may be, the tenement block shall have the right, as against any other person having an estate or interest in the premises, to take any reasonable steps for the purpose of complying with the improvement notice; and any person bound by an undertaking accepted under this Part of this Act shall have the right as against the occupier of the premises to which the undertaking relates to take any reasonable steps for the purpose of complying with the undertaking.

(3) Section 161 of the Act of 1957 (penalty for preventing execution of works) shall apply as if any reference in that section to Part II of that Act included a reference to this Part of this Act.

(4) Without prejudice to the provisions of subsection (2) of this section, the carrying out of works in pursuance of an improvement notice or an undertaking accepted under this Part of this Act shall not give rise to any liability on the part of a lessee to reinstate the premises at any time in the condition in which they were before the works were carried out, or to any liability for failure so to reinstate the premises.

(5) In the application of this section to Scotland—

(a) in subsections (1) and (2), the references to a tenement block shall be omitted ;

(b) in subsection (3), for the reference to the Act of 1957 there shall be substituted a reference to the Act of 1950.