Housing Act 1957

85 Enforcement of Part IV

(1) It shall be the duty of the local authority to enforce the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Act as respects dwelling-houses in their district, and a prosecution for an offence against the said provisions shall not be instituted otherwise than by the local authority:

Provided that such a prosecution may be instituted against the local authority themselves by another person with the consent of the Attorney-General.

(2) The local authority may serve upon the occupier of a dwelling-house which is overcrowded in such circumstances as to render him guilty of an offence notice in writing requiring him to abate the overcrowding before the expiration of fourteen days from the date of the service of the notice, and, if at any time within three months from the expiration of that period the house is in the occupation of the person upon whom the notice was served or of a member of his family and is overcrowded in such circumstances as to render the occupier guilty of an offence, the local authority may make complaint to a magistrates' court and thereupon the court shall, by its warrant in the form set out in the Schedule to the Small Tenements Recovery Act, 1838, or in a form to the like effect, order vacant possession of the dwelling-house to be given to the landlord within such period, not being less than fourteen nor more than twenty-eight days, as they may determine.

Any expenses incurred by the local authority under this subsection in securing the giving of possession of a dwelling-house to the landlord may be recovered by them from him summarily as a civil debt.

(3) For the purpose of enabling them to discharge their duties under the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Act, the local authority may serve notice on the occupier of a dwelling-house requiring him to furnish them within fourteen days with a statement in writing of the number, ages and sexes of the persons sleeping in the house, and, if the occupier makes default in complying with the requirement or furnishes a statement which to his knowledge is false in any material particular, he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding two pounds.