Housing Act 1969

64 Registers of houses in multiple occupation

(1) A scheme under section 22 of the Housing Act 1961 may be so made or amended as to contain provisions, either in lieu of or in addition to the provisions authorised by that section, for preventing, subject to subsection (3) of this section, multiple occupation of a house to an extent greater than that mentioned in that subsection unless the house is registered in pursuance of those provisions and the number of households or persons occupying it does not exceed the number so registered for that house ; and such provisions may prohibit persons from permitting others to take up residence in a house or part of a house but shall not prohibit any person from taking up or remaining in residence.

(2) In the following provisions of this section such provisions of a scheme as are authorised by subsection (1) of this section are referred to as control provisions.

(3) Control provisions shall not affect the continued occupation of a house by the number of households or persons occupying it at the time the provisions come into force and shall not affect any occupation of a house which is such that—

(a) the persons occupying the house form two households; or

(b) apart from one household (if any) the house is occupied by not more than four persons.

(4) Control provisions may enable the local authority—

(a) to refuse to register or to vary the registration of a house on the ground that the house is unsuitable and incapable of being made suitable for such occupation as would be permitted by virtue of the registration or variation;

(b) to refuse to register a house on the ground that the person having control of the house, or the person intended to be the person managing the house, is not a fit and proper person ; and

(c) to require, as a condition of registering or of varying the registration of a house, that such works are executed as will make the house suitable for such occupation as will be permitted by virtue of the registration or variation.

(5) Control provisions shall provide that, where the local authority refuse to register or to vary the registration of a house or require the execution of any works as a condition of doing so, they shall give the applicant a written statement of their reasons for doing so.

(6) Where a local authority notify a person who has applied for the registration or the variation of a registration of a house in pursuance of control provisions that they refuse to register the house or vary the registration in accordance with his application or that they require the execution of any works as a condition of doing so, he may, within twenty-one days of being so notified or such longer period as the local authority may in writing allow, appeal to the county court, and on such an appeal the county court may confirm, reverse or vary the decision of the authority ; and where the decision of the authority was a refusal to register or vary the registration of a house, the county court may direct them to register or vary the registration either in accordance with the application as made or in accordance with that application as varied in such manner as the county court may direct.

For the purposes of this subsection, where a local authority fail to register or vary the registration of a house within a period of five weeks after receiving an application therefor or such longer period as may be agreed in writing between the authority and the applicant they shall be deemed to have refused the application and to have notified him of their refusal at the end of that period.

(7) Any person contravening or failing to comply with any provision of a scheme under section 22 of the [1961 c. 65.] Housing Act 1961 shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction—

(a) if the offence is a contravention of so much of the control provisions as relates to occupation, to a greater extent than permitted thereunder, of a house not registered in pursuance of those provisions, to a fine not exceeding £100 or, if the offence is committed by a person previously convicted of an offence consisting of a contravention of the control provisions, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or a fine not exceeding £100 or both;

(b) if it is a contravention of so much of the control provisions as relates to the occupation of a house registered in pursuance of those provisions by more households or persons than the registration permits, to a fine not exceeding £100;

(c) in any other case to a fine not exceeding £10.

(8) In section 22(10) of the Housing Act 1961 for the words from " and without proof " to the end there shall be substituted the words " and the production of any document purporting to be a copy of an entry in any register kept under the scheme and to be certified as a true copy by the clerk of the authority shall be prima facie evidence of the entry, without, in either case, proof of the handwriting or official position of the person by whom it purports to be signed ".