Housing Act 1964

27 Appeal against improvement notice

(1) Within six weeks from the service on the person having control of the premises of an improvement notice, any such person or any other person having an estate or interest in the premises, other than a person whose only estate or interest is as a tenant occupying the premises, may appeal to the county court against the improvement notice.

(2) The grounds of the appeal may be all or any of the following, that is—

(a) that it is not practicable to comply with the requirements of the improvement notice at reasonable expense, regard being had to the estimated cost of the works and the value which it is estimated that the dwelling or other premises will have when the works are completed;

(b) that the local authority have refused unreasonably to approve the execution of alternative works, or that the works specified in the notice are otherwise unreasonable in character or extent;

(c) that the dwelling, or any of the dwellings in the premises, is not, or is no longer, without one or more of the standard amenities, or that the dwelling or other premises after being improved would not be in such condition as to be fit for human habitation, and likely, subject to normal maintenance, to remain in that condition and available for use as living accommodation for a period of not less than fifteen years ;

(d) that some person other than the appellant will as the holder of an estate or interest in the dwelling or other premises, derive a benefit from the execution of the works and that that person ought to pay the whole or part of the cost of the execution of the works;

(e) that the improvement notice is invalid on the ground that any requirement of this Act has not been complied with or on the ground of some informality, defect or error in or in connection with the improvement notice.

(3) In so far as an appeal under this section is based on the ground that the improvement notice is invalid, the court shall confirm the improvement notice unless satisfied that the interests of the appellant have been substantially prejudiced by the facts relied on by him.

(4) No appeal shall be brought against a final improvement notice on any ground which is a ground on which an appeal was brought, or might have been brought, against the suspended improvement notice to which the final improvement notice relates except so far as that ground depends on an alteration in the dwelling or the building of which the dwelling forms part, or on some other change in circumstances, which has taken place since the service of the suspended improvement notice.

(5) On any appeal under this section the court may, subject to subsection (7) of this section, make such order either confirming or quashing or varying the improvement notice as the court thinks fit but not, in the case of an immediate improvement notice or a final improvement notice, so as to extend the period within which the works are to be carried out.

(6) On any appeal under this section the court may, if the court thinks fit, accept from an appellant or any other party to the proceedings an undertaking to carry out the works specified in the improvement notice, or any such works as might have been so specified if the court exercised its jurisdiction to vary the improvement notice ; and any undertaking accepted by the court shall have the same effect as if it had been given to and accepted by the local authority under this Part of this Act, and had not been given to the court.

(7) An improvement notice shall not be varied on an appeal under this section—

(a) so as to require the carrying out of works to improve a dwelling to the full standard if the works specified in the improvement notice appealed against were works to improve the dwelling to the reduced standard, or

(b) so as to require the carrying out of works to improve a dwelling to the reduced standard if the works specified in the improvement notice appealed against were works to improve the dwelling to the full standard.

(8) Where the grounds on which an appeal under this section is brought include the grounds specified in subsection (2)(d) of this section, the court may on the hearing of the appeal make such order as it thinks fit with respect to the payment to be made by that other person to the appellant or, where the works are carried out by the local authority, to the local authority.

(9) If an improvement notice is quashed by the county court, or on appeal from the county court, the court taking the decision may, if it thinks fit, and subject to compliance by the local authority with such terms and conditions as the court thinks fit to impose, extend the time within which, under section 15(2), section 19(4) or section 21(2) of this Act, as the case may be, the local authority may serve a further improvement notice in respect of the dwelling.

(10) This section shall apply to Scotland subject to the following modifications:—

(a) the persons who may appeal under subsection (1) against an immediate improvement notice served under section 22 of this Act in respect of any dwelling shall include a tenant occupying that dwelling, and subsections (2) to (9) shall not apply in relation to an appeal by such a tenant, but—

(i) such a tenant may appeal only on the ground that the carrying out of the works specified in the improvement notice will cause unreasonable hardship to him or to any member of his family residing with him, regard being had to the age, health and any infirmity of the tenant or any such member;

(ii) on such an appeal the sheriff may either confirm or suspend the improvement notice as he thinks fit, and any such suspension shall cease to have effect when there is a change in the occupation of the dwelling;

(iii) for the purposes of sub-paragraph (ii) of this paragraph there is a change in the occupation of a dwelling when the tenant who was occupying the dwelling when the improvement notice was suspended by the sheriff ceases to occupy the dwelling, except that there is no change in the occupation of the dwelling if, on the tenant ceasing to occupy the dwelling, it is occupied by a member of his family who was residing with him immediately before he ceased to occupy the dwelling;

(b) any period after the service of an immediate improvement notice under section 22 of this Act and while an undertaking given under section 25 of this Act is under consideration, and any period while a suspension order under paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of the said section 25 is in force, shall be left out of account in reckoning, in relation to the said immediate improvement notice, the period of six weeks referred to in subsection (1) of this section;

(c) in subsection (2), the words " or other premises ", where ever they occur, and the words " or any of the dwellings in the premises " shall be omitted ;

(d) where in pursuance of subsection (6) of this section the sheriff accepts an undertaking to carry out works on a dwelling comprised in a tenement, being a dwelling in respect of which an immediate improvement notice has been served under section 22 of this Act, he shall direct the local authority to make an order (in this Part of this Act referred to as a " suspension order ") suspending the immediate improvement notice appealed against and any other immediate improvement notice which in the opinion of the sheriff ought to be suspended in consequence of his acceptance of the undertaking, and for the purposes of this Part of this Act a suspension order made by a local authority in compliance with a direction of the sheriff given under this paragraph shall be deemed to have been made by them under section 25(1)(a) of this Act;

(e) in subsection (9), the words " or on appeal from the county court" shall be omitted, and for the words " section 21(2) " there shall be substituted the words " section 22(1) ";

(f) where an improvement notice is quashed on an appeal under this section the local authority shall as soon as practicable thereafter cause to be recorded in the General Register of Sasines a notice stating that the said notice has been quashed as aforesaid.