Part 1Housing standards

Chapter 5Repair, improvement and demolition of houses

Enforcement by local authority

35Carrying out of work or demolitions by local authority

(1)If the owner of a house fails to comply with a work notice or a demolition notice, the local authority may carry out—

(a)the work or the demolition required by the notice, and

(b)any other work which, in the course of carrying out work or demolition authorised by paragraph (a), the local authority finds to be required for the purposes of—

(i)implementing an HRA action plan in relation to any house identified in it, or

(ii)bringing any house which the local authority considers to be sub-standard (whether or not situated in an HRA) into, and keeping it in, a reasonable state of repair,

but which it could not reasonably have known to be so required before it served the work notice or demolition notice.

(2)The local authority may not carry out any work authorised by subsection (1)(a) unless—

(a)the period within which the work or demolition requires to be carried out has ended, or

(b)the owner has given notice to the local authority—

(i)of being unable to comply with the work notice or demolition notice because of a lack of necessary rights (of access or otherwise) despite having taken reasonable steps for the purposes of acquiring those rights, or

(ii)stating that the owner considers that carrying out the work or demolition required is likely to endanger any person.

(3)Before carrying out any work authorised by subsection (1)(b) the local authority must give 21 days' notice of its intention to do so in accordance with section 62.

(4)The requirement to give notice under subsection (3) does not apply if the local authority considers—

(a)that the situation is urgent, or

(b)that it would otherwise be impractical to carry out work authorised by subsection (1)(a) before carrying out any work authorised by subsection (1)(b).