Housing Act 1985

247 Changes of ownership or occupation of land to be notified to local housing authority.

(1) This section—

(a) applies to land in a housing action area which consists of or includes housing accommodation, and

(b) comes into operation in relation to a housing action area at the end of the period of four weeks beginning with the date on which the housing action area is declared.

(2) Where notice to quit is served in respect of land to which this section applies on a tenant who occupies as a dwelling the whole or part of the land, the landlord by whom, or on whose behalf, the notice was served shall, within the period of seven days beginning with the date on which the notice was served, notify the local housing authority that the notice has been served.

(3) Where a tenancy of land to which this section applies is about to expire by effluxion of time, the person who is the landlord under the tenancy shall, not less than four weeks before the tenancy does so expire, notify the local housing authority that the tenancy is about to expire.

(4) A person who carries out a disposal of land to which this section applies, other than a disposal excepted by subsection (5), shall notify the local housing authority, not less than four weeks or more than six months before the date of the disposal, that the disposal is about to take place.

(5) Subsection (4) does not apply to—

(a) a disposal by a person who, throughout the period of six months ending on the date of the disposal has been continuously in exclusive occupation (with or without members of his household) of the land to which the disposal relates;

(b) a disposal to which the local housing authority are a party;

(c) the grant of a protected tenancy or protected occupancy or the entering into of a restricted contract;

(d) the grant or assignment of a lease (of land or an interest in land) for a term which expires within the period of five years and three months beginning on the date of the grant of the lease, where neither the lease nor any other instrument or contract confers on the lessor or the lessee an option (however expressed) to renew or extend the term so that the new or extended term would continue beyond the end of that period;

(e) the grant of an estate or interest by way of security for a loan;

(f) a conveyance of an estate or interest which gives effect to a contract to convey that estate or interest which was duly notified to the local housing authority in accordance with subsection (4).

(6) When the local housing authority receive notification from a person under this section with respect to any land they shall—

(a) send him, as soon as practicable, written acknowledgement of the receipt of the notification, stating the date on which it was received, and

(b) inform him, within the period of four weeks beginning with that date, of what action, if any, they propose to take with respect to that land as a result of the notification.