Housing Act 1985

164 Secretary of State’s general power to intervene.

(1) The Secretary of State may use his powers under this section where it appears to him that tenants generally, a tenant or tenants of a particular landlord, or tenants of a description of landlords, have or may have difficulty in exercising effectively and expeditiously the right to buy or the right to be granted a shared ownership lease.

(2) The powers may be exercised only after he has given the landlord or landlords notice in writing of his intention to do so and while the notice is in force.

(3) Such a notice shall be deemed to be given 72 hours after it has been sent.

(4) Where a notice under this section has been given to a landlord or landlords, no step taken by the landlord or any of the landlords while the notice is in force or before it was given has any effect in relation to the exercise by a secure tenant of the right to buy, the right to a mortgage or the right to be granted a shared ownership lease, except in so far as the notice otherwise provides.

(5) While a notice under this section is in force the Secretary of State may do all such things as appear to him necessary or expedient to enable secure tenants of the landlord or landlords to which the notice was given to exercise the right to buy, the right to a mortgage and the right to be granted a shared ownership lease; and he is not bound to take the steps which the landlord would have been bound to take under this Part.

(6) Where in consequence of the exercise by a secure tenant of the right to a mortgage a landlord becomes a mortgagee of a dwelling-house whilst a notice under this section is in force in relation to the landlord and to the dwelling-house, then, while the notice remains in force—

(a) the Secretary of State may, on behalf of the mortgagee, receive any sums due to it and exercise all powers and do all things which the mortgagee could have exercised or done, and

(b) the mortgagee shall not receive any such sum, exercise any such power or do any such thing, except with the consent of the Secretary of State, which may be given subject to such conditions as the Secretary of State thinks fit.