Housing (Amendment) Act, 1958

Advances by housing authorities for reconstruction, repair, and improvement of houses.

13.—(1) A housing authority may, subject to such conditions as may be approved by the Minister, make an advance to a person (in this section referred to as the borrower) carrying out reconstruction, repair or improvement works on a house, provided that the authority is satisfied that—

(a) after the proposed works are carried out, the house will in all respects be fit for human habitation, and

(b) the proposed works are essential for the purpose of providing suitable housing accommodation, and

(c) the house is suitable for reconstruction, repair or improvement, as the case may be.

(2) An advance under this section in respect of a house shall not exceed seventy-five per cent. of the amount which, in the opinion of the housing authority, the house, if sold in the open market at the date on which the advance is authorised by the housing authority, might reasonably be expected to realise.

(3) An advance under this section shall be repaid with interest within such period not exceeding fifteen years from the date of the payment of the advance or, if the advance is paid in instalments, the date of the payment of the first instalment as may be determined by the housing authority.

(4) Repayment of an advance under this section in respect of a house shall be secured by—

(a) an instrument vesting the ownership of the house in the housing authority subject to the right of redemption by the borrower, or

(b) where such ownership is already vested in the housing authority subject to the right of redemption by the borrower to secure the repayment of an advance in respect of the house under the Small Dwellings Acquisition Acts, 1899 to 1957, as amended by this Act, an instrument of further charge charging the repayment of the advance (together with the interest payable thereon) under this section on the house and making the said right of redemption subject also to the repayment of the advance (together with the interest payable thereon) under this section.

(5) An advance under this section in respect of a house may be paid in instalments from time to time during the carrying out of the works on the house but the total amount of instalments paid at any time shall not exceed the cost of so much of the works as is completed at that time.

(6) (a) For the purposes of this section a housing authority shall have the like powers of borrowing as are conferred on such authority for the purposes of the Housing of the Working Classes Acts or the Labourers Acts.

(b) Money borrowed pursuant to this subsection may be lent to a housing authority by means of an issue from the local loans fund as if such loan constituted a local loan within the meaning of the Local Loans Fund Acts, 1935 to 1957, and was authorised by an Act of the Oireachtas.

(7) For the purposes of this section “ownership” shall be such interest or combination of interests in a house as will constitute either a fee simple (including fee farm) interest in possession or a leasehold interest in possession of such number of years unexpired at the date on which the advance under this section in respect of the house is authorised by the housing authority as is equal to or greater than the sum of the term fixed for the repayment of the advance and fifteen years.