Housing Act 2004

Housing Act 2004

2004 CHAPTER 34

Commentary on Sections

Part 1 - Housing Conditions

Chapter 2 – Improvement Notices, Prohibition Orders and Hazard Awareness Notices

Section 20: Prohibition orders relating to category 1 hazards: duty of authority to make order

105. Subsection (1) provides that, if a category 1 hazard exists on any residential premises, making a prohibition order is one of the courses of action available to an LHA in discharging its general duty under section 5 to take the most appropriate enforcement action to deal with a such a hazard, so long as the premises in respect of which the order is to be made are not the subject of a management order under Part 4.

106. Subsection (3) provides that a prohibition order may prohibit the use of residential premises which are dwellings or HMOs, one or more flats contained in a building, the common parts of the building containing one or more flats, or external common parts of such buildings.

107. Subsection (4) enables the use of the non-residential element of a building containing one or more flats to be prohibited, but only if the deficiency giving rise to the hazard is located there and the prohibition is necessary for the health or safety of actual or potential residential occupiers of the flat or flats within the premises.

108. Under subsection (5), a prohibition order can relate to more than one category 1 hazard.

109. Subsection (6) provides that the operation of an order may be suspended in accordance with section 23.