Public Health Act 1936

47 Replacement of earthclosets, and &c, by waterclosets at joint expense of owner and local authority.

(1) If a building has a sufficient water supply and sewer available, the local authority may, subject to the provisions of this section, by notice to the owner of the building require that any closets, other than waterclosets, provided for, or in connection with, the building shall be replaced by waterclosets, notwithstanding that the closets are not insufficient in number and are not prejudicial to health or a nuisance.

(2) A notice under this section shall either require the owner to execute the necessary works, or require that the authority themselves shall be allowed to execute them, and shall state the effect of the next succeeding subsection.

(3) Where under the preceding subsection a local authority require that they shall be allowed to execute the works, they shall be entitled to recover from the owner one-half of the expenses reasonably incurred by them in the execution of the works, and, where they require the owner to execute the works, the owner shall be entitled to recover from them one-half of the expenses reasonably incurred by him in the execution thereof.

(4) Where the owner of a building proposes to provide it with a watercloset in substitution for a closet of any other type, the local authority may, if they think fit, agree to pay to him a part, not exceeding one-half, of the expenses reasonably incurred in effecting the replacement, notwithstanding that a notice has not been served by them under this section.

(5) The provisions of Part XII of this Act with respect to appeals against, and the enforcement of, notices requiring the execution of works shall apply in relation to any notice under this section requiring a person either to execute works or to allow works to be executed, subject however to the modifications that no appeal shall Me on the ground that the works are unnecessary and that any reference in the said provisions to the expenses reasonably incurred in executing works shall be construed as a reference to one-half of those expenses.