HOUSING ACT, 1929

AN ACT TO FACILITATE THE PROVISION OF DWELLING HOUSES, AND FOR THAT PURPOSE TO AUTHORISE THE MAKING OF GRANTS IN RESPECT OF THE ERECTION OF SUCH HOUSES, TO AMEND THE HOUSING ACTS, 1925 AND 1928, AND TO MAKE OTHER PROVISIONS CONTRIBUTING TO AN INCREASED SUPPLY OF DWELLING HOUSES. [14th May, 1929.]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS OF SAORSTAT EIREANN AS FOLLOWS:—

1 Definitions.

1.—In this Act save where the context otherwise requires—

the expression “local authority” means and includes the council of a county or borough or urban district, or the commissioners of any town, or a board of health and public assistance or a board of public health, or the council of a rural district in the county of Dublin;

the expression “public utility society” means a society registered under the Industrial and Provident Societies Acts, 1893 to 1913, or a friendly society registered under the Friendly Societies Acts, 1896 and 1908, or a trade union registered under the Trade Union Acts, 1871 to 1913, whose objects include the erection of houses for the working classes and the said expression also includes a company which satisfies the Minister that its objects are wholly philanthropic and include the provision of houses for the working classes;

the word “person” does not include either a local authority, a public utility society, or the Irish Sailors and Soldiers Land Trust;

the word “Minister” means the Minister for Local Government and Public Health;

the word “house” means a building suitable for occupation as a dwelling house, and includes a self-contained flat;

the word “self-contained flat” means any part of a building suitable for separate occupation as a dwelling house;

the word “erection” does not include reconstruction, and the words “erect” “erecting,” and other cognate words shall be construed accordingly.

2 Houses to which this Act applies.

2.—This Act shall apply to every house which complies with the rules set out in the First Schedule to this Act, and with any other rules or regulations prescribed for that purpose.

3 Grants which may be made by the Minister.

3.—(1) The Minister may, with the consent of the Minister for Finance make out of moneys to be provided by the Oireachtas—

• (a) to any person erecting one or more houses to which this Act applies a grant not exceeding £45 in respect of each such house;

• (b) to any public utility society erecting one or more houses to which this Act applies a grant not exceeding £60 in respect of each such house;

• (c) to any local authority erecting one or more houses in pursuance of the Housing of the Working Classes (Ireland) Acts, 1890 to 1921, in accordance with a scheme approved by the Minister, a grant not exceeding £60 in respect of each such house;

• (d) to any local authority erecting one or more houses in pursuance of the Labourers (Ireland) Acts, 1883 to 1919, in accordance with a scheme approved by the Minister, a grant not exceeding £50 in respect of each such house.

• (2) A local authority erecting one or more houses in pursuance of the Housing of the Working Classes (Ireland) Acts, 1890 to 1921, in accordance with a scheme approved by the Minister may undertake with the Minister that every such house shall only be disposed of by way of sale or lease or letting at such price or rent and subject to such conditions as the Minister shall approve, and that such local authority will either in the local financial year in which this Act is passed or in the next subsequent local financial year raise for the purposes of such scheme a rate not less than one shilling in the pound and will apply the proceeds of such rate towards meeting the expenses of the execution of such scheme; and where a local authority so undertakes in respect of any such scheme it shall be obligatory on such local authority to carry out and fulfil such undertaking, and the Minister may, with the consent of the Minister for Finance make out of moneys to be provided by the Oireachtas a grant (in substitution for and not in addition to a grant under the foregoing sub-section of this section) not exceeding £72 in respect of each house erected in pursuance of such scheme.

• (3) Whenever the Minister is satisfied that a house in respect of which a grant may be made under this Act was erected for occupation by a particular person in substitution for another house which, while occupied by such person, was rendered uninhabitable by coast erosion, the grant (if any) made by the Minister under this Act in respect of such house may exceed the appropriate limit specified in the first sub-section of this section, but shall not exceed such of the limits specified in Part I (exclusive of the Note appended thereto) of the Second Schedule to the Housing Act, 1925 (No. 12 of 1925), as is appropriate to such grant.

• (4) Sub-section (3) of section 3 of the Housing Act, 1925 (No. 12 of 1925) as amended by section 3 of the Housing Act, 1928 (No. 31 of 1928) is hereby repealed and in lieu thereof it is hereby enacted that the aggregate amount of grants made or to be made under the said section 3 of the Housing Act, 1925, as amended as aforesaid, together with the aggregate amount of grants to be made under this section shall not exceed the sum of One Million and Fifty Thousand Pounds.

• (5) The Minister shall not make a grant under this section in respect of—

• (a) a house erected in accordance with a reinstatement condition within the meaning of section 10 of the Damage to Property (Compensation) Act, 1923 (No. 15 of 1923);

• (b) a house which is erected on or on any part of the site of a building in respect of the destruction of which compensation has been awarded under the said Damage to Property (Compensation) Act, 1923, or in respect of the destruction of which a report has been made under section 15 of the said Act.

4 Method for payment of grants.

4.—(1) Every grant made to a person or public utility society by the Minister under this Act shall be paid in such manner as may be prescribed from time to time and the decision of the Minister as to whether any condition or regulation has or has not been complied with shall be final.

• (2) No grant shall be paid by the Minister to a person or public utility society in respect of the erection of a house, unless and until such erection shall have been certified by an officer appointed by the Minister for the purpose (in this section called the “appointed officer”) or (in the case of an appeal to the Minister from a refusal by the appointed officer so to certify) by the Minister, to have been completed in a proper and workmanlike manner.

• (3) Every grant made to a local authority by the Minister under this Act may be paid in instalments in such manner as the Minister shall direct, so that each instalment shall be paid on the completion of a specified portion of the erection of the houses in respect of which the grant is made.

5 Local Authorities may assist the erection of houses.

5.—(1) A local authority may with the consent of the Minister assist the erection of houses to which this Act applies in their functional area in any of the ways following, that is to say:—

• (a) make to any person or public utility society to whom a grant is payable by the Minister under this Act in respect of a house situate within the functional area of the local authority a further grant not exceeding the amount of the grant payable by the Minister in respect of that house;

• (b) make to any person or public utility society to whom a grant is payable by the Minister under this Act in respect of a house situate within the functional area of the local authority a loan not exceeding twice the amount of such grant: Provided that every such loan shall be repayable, with or without interest, by instalments or otherwise within a period for which the local authority can themselves borrow money, and shall be secured by a mortgage or charge on such house and on the hereditament upon which such house is situate;

• (c) grant, sell or lease any portion of any land, in the possession of the local authority, to any person or public utility society, subject to a covenant that such person or society will erect on such land a specified number of houses to which this Act applies, and in the case of a sale or lease the price or rent to be paid by such person or society may be less than the price or rent which could be obtained for the sale or lease of such land in the open market;

• (d) execute any works necessary, or incidental to, or tending to promote the development of land suitable to the erection of houses to which this Act applies:

Provided that the total value, as determined by the Minister, of the assistance granted by any local authority under this section towards the erection of any house or houses to any person or society shall not exceed the total of the grant payable to such person or society in respect of such house or houses by the Minister under this Act.

• (2) In this section the expression “functional area” means—

• (a) in respect of the council of any borough or urban district or the commissioners of any town—the area of the borough, district, or town as the case may be;

• (b) in respect of a county council—the area of the county exclusive of every borough, urban district, or town situated therein: Provided that if the commissioners of a town, with the consent of the Minister, resolve, at a meeting specially convened for that purpose, that their functions under this section be transferred to the council of the county in which such town is situate, and the said council at a meeting specially convened for the purpose agree to the said transfer, the functional area of the said council shall thereupon include the area of such town.

• (3) Any local authority may with the consent of the Minister borrow money for the purpose of this section and moneys borrowed for those purposes shall not be reckoned as part of the total debt of such local authority for the purpose of any limitation on borowing imposed by or under any statute.

• (4) In this section the expression “local authority” shall not include the council of a rural district in the county of Dublin or a board of health and public assistance or a board of public health.

6 Expenses.

6.—(1) All expenses incurred by a county council in the execution of this Act shall be defrayed out of the poor rate and shall be charged on the functional area of such council as defined in the preceding section.

• (2) All expenses incurred by the council of a borough or urban district or by the commissioners of a town in the execution of this Act shall be raised and defrayed as if they had been incurred by such council or commissioners in the execution of the Housing of the Working Classes (Ireland) Acts, 1890 to 1921.

7 Local Authority to remit portion of rates.

7.—(1) Each local authority having power to levy rates shall, in every of the first nineteen local financial years after the valuation for rating purposes of a house in respect of the erection of which a grant shall have been made by the Minister under this Act to a person or public utility society, remit a portion of the rates leviable in respect of that house in that year by the local authority.

• (2) The amount of the rate leviable in any such year as afore said which shall be remitted by a local authority under the fore going sub-section shall be the proportion of such rate specified in the second column of the Second Schedule to this Act opposite the number of such year in the first column of the said Second Schedule.

• (3) The provisions of section 12 of the Local Government Act, 1927 (No. 3 of 1927) shall not have effect in the case of any house in respect of which a grant is made by the Minister under this Act.

8 Allocation of Irish Housing Fund.

8.—The sums liable to be paid or set apart by any local authority in respect of moneys borrowed by that authority for the purposes of the erection of houses under the provisions of the Housing of the Working Classes (Ireland) Acts, 1890 to 1921, in respect of which grants are made by the Minister under this Act shall not be included in the annual housing charge of that authority within the meaning of section 5 of the Housing of the Working Classes (Ireland) Act, 1908.

9 Rules, conditions, etc., may be prescribed.

9.—(1) The Minister may by order prescribe all such rules, regulations, conditions, and other matters as are in this Act referred to as being or to be prescribed, and such other regulations as may be required for carrying this Act into effect.

• (2) Every order made by the Minister under this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made, and if a resolution is passed by either House of the Oireachtas within the next subsequent twenty-one days on which that House has sat, annulling such order, such order shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under such order.

• (3) In so far as the provisions of any local Act, or of any bye-laws, rules, regulations or schemes under whatever authority made, relating to the construction, laying out, or drainage of new buildings or new streets are inconsistent with any regulations prescribed by the Minister under this section, those provisions shall not apply to any house to which this Act applies, and which complies with the regulations so prescribed.

10 Short title and construction.

10.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Housing Act, 1929.

• (2) The Housing Acts, 1925 and 1928 and this Act so far as it amends those Acts may be cited collectively as the Housing Acts, 1925 to 1929.

FIRST SCHEDULE. RULES TO BE COMPLIED WITH BY HOUSES TO WHICH THIS ACT APPLIES.

SECOND SCHEDULE. Proportion of rates to be remitted.