Manual on unfit houses and unhealthy areas / Ministry of Health.

Date:
1919
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Manual on unfit houses and unhealthy areas / Ministry of Health. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/122 (page 12)
    Ceilings. —Plaster badly cracked, loose, falling off in patches, or dirty or sodden with filth. Floors.—Broken, cracked, too thin to be safe or so rough as to be very difficult to keep clean; defective hearths or ash holes. Stairs.—Broken treads or risers, or broken handrails or balusters. Want of handrails or balusters. : Windows.—Perished or rotted frames or sashes; broken hinges, cords or window fasteners. Doors.—Doors*so swollen or warped that they will not shut properly ; broken hinges or fasteners. | Ventilators or flues.—Stopped up or broken. Cupboards.—Insufficient or defective. Grates, stoves or ranges.—Broken, badly set or wanting setting ; ovens, boilers: or hot plates cracked ; fire-bars missing. Minor defects may not cause more than inconvenience, but should, nevertheless, be put right ; on the other hand, the cumulative effect of small defects may become serlous. : ; Owners of property sometimes overlook the fact that small defects, if dealt with promptly, may be repaired at slight cost, whereas, if neglected, they may cause serious unfitness and become expensive to remedy. 3 Other Conditions. 7. There must be means for temporarily storing waste pending its removal. There will be obvious danger to health if night soil or refuse are disposed of, or temporarily stored, in so unsatisfactory a way that noxious odours penetrate into the house or a plague of flies is produced. | A well-ventilated store for food, on the north or east side of the dwelling where | practicable, is desirable. Provision should be made to secure that food can be properly protected from contamination by flies or dirt. Cleanliness and freedom from vermin should be secured ; a house continuously and seriously infested with vermin may warrant a closing order. CHAPTER VI.—_METHODS OF OPERATION. General Policy. _1. Local Authorities will, as a rule, find it advisable, before causing any formal notice to be served, to give to the owner an informal indication of any works or measures which they consider to be necessary. _ Where the works required are extensive it may be expedient to arrange for a period of time within which they or various parts of them are to be carried out. 2. The owner may be helped not only by telling him what works are needed, but also, in suitable cases, by lending him money for carrying out the necessary works (sec. 22/19). It is to be noted, however, that the section allows of the loan of money only when the works amount to reconstruction, enlargement or improve- ment; it does not authorise the loan of money for ordinary maintenance repairs. . Where a loan is made, the Local Authority should (1) obtain reasonable security for it 3 (2) arrange for its repayment, preferably by instalments, within a period well within the time for which the repairs will last; (3) charge a reasonable rate of interest. Repayment of capital should be required not less often than half-_ yearly ; in some instances monthly instalments may be advisable. While generally loans should be made only where the expenses are of a substantial amount, it may be expedient, and fair, where the owner is a person of small means, to allow a loan even when the amount is comparatively small. Local Authorities should usually not require to borrow for these loans ; but, should they wish to do so in exceptional cases, application must be made to the Ministry in accordance with the instructions printed on page 30.