Housing Act, 1966
Overcrowded houses. |
65.—(1) A housing authority may, if they think fit, serve on the owner of a house a notice in writing specifying the maximum number and categories of persons, by whom, having regard to section 63 of this Act, the house or any room therein may at any time be occupied without causing overcrowding, and the authority may, as respects any notice served under this section, require the owner on whom it is served to publish, in such manner as the authority may specify, the contents of the notice. | |
(2) Where the owner of a house is causing or permitting the house to be overcrowded, the housing authority may, if they think fit, serve on such owner a notice in writing requiring him to desist from causing or permitting such overcrowding and specifying the period, being not less than twenty-one days beginning on the date of the notice, within which, or the event after the occurrence of which, the requirements of the notice are to be complied with. | ||
(3) Any person who neglects or refuses to comply with a requirement of a housing authority to publish the contents of a notice under subsection (1) of this section shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding twenty-five pounds. | ||
(4) Where a notice has been served under subsection (2) of this section and the person on whom the notice has been served, at any time after the expiration of the period or the occurrence of the event specified in the notice, causes or permits the house to which the notice relates to be overcrowded, he shall, subject to subsection (5) of this section, be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds or, at the discretion of the court, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one month or to both such fine and imprisonment. | ||
(5) Where a house which would not otherwise be overcrowded becomes overcrowded by reason of the increase in the age or in the number of children of the person by whom the house is occupied, the owner of the house shall not be guilty of an offence under subsection (4) of this section. | ||
(6) Notwithstanding subsection (1) of section 121 of this Act, on the commencement of this section bye-laws made under section 62 of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, or section 20 of the Housing (Ireland) Act, 1919 , shall, in so far as they relate to overcrowding, cease to have effect. |