Housing Act 1985

232 Exclusion of dwellings controlled by Crown or a public authority.

(1) No provisional notice or improvement notice may be served in respect of a dwelling in which there is a Crown or Duchy interest except with the consent of the appropriate authority; but if that consent is given this Part applies as to a dwelling in which there is no such interest.

(2) No provisional notice or improvement notice may be served in respect of a dwelling if the person having control of the dwelling is—

• a local authority,

• a new town corporation,

• the Development Board for Rural Wales,

• the Housing Corporation,

• a registered housing association, or

• a housing trust which is a charity.

(3) If after a provisional notice or improvement notice has been served in respect of a dwelling—

(a) in the case of a dwelling in which there is a Crown or Duchy interest, the appropriate authority becomes the person having control of the dwelling, or

(b) any such body as is mentioned in subsection (2) becomes the person having control of the dwelling,

the notice, and any undertaking accepted under this Part with respect to the dwelling, shall cease to have effect.

(4) Where an improvement notice ceases to have effect by virtue of subsection (3), the body which or person who has become the person having control of the dwelling shall notify the officer who registered the notice in the register of local land charges and furnish him with all information required by him for the purpose of cancelling the registration.

(5) In this section “Crown or Duchy interest” means an interest belonging to Her Majesty in right of the Crown or of the Duchy of Lancaster, or belonging to the Duchy of Cornwall or belonging to a government department, or held in trust for Her Majesty for the purposes of a government department, and “the appropriate authority” means—

(a) in relation to land belonging to Her Majesty in right of the Crown and forming part of the Crown Estate, the Crown Estate Commissioners;

(b) in relation to land belonging to Her Majesty in right of the Crown and not forming part of the Crown Estate, the government department having the management of the land;

(c) in relation to land belonging to Her Majesty in right of the Duchy of Lancaster, the Chancellor of the Duchy;

(d) in relation to land belonging to the Duchy of Cornwall, such person as the Duke of Cornwall, or the possessor for the time being of the Duchy of Cornwall, appoints,

(e) in relation to land belonging to a government department or held in trust for Her Majesty for the purposes of a government department, that department;

and if any question arises as to what authority is the appropriate authority in relation to any land, the question shall be referred to the Treasury whose decision shall be final.

(6) In this section “local authority” includes—

• a parish or community council,

• the trustees of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple,

• the trustees of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, and

• the police authority for any police area,

and any joint board or joint committee all the constituent members of which are local authorities for the purposes of this section.