PART I

Preliminary And General

1. —(1) This Act may be cited as the Housing Act, 1966.

(2) This Act shall come into operation on such day or days as may be fixed therefor by any order or orders of the Minister, either generally or with reference to any particular purpose or provision, and different days may be fixed for different purposes and different provisions of this Act.

2. —(1) In this Act, save where the context otherwise requires—

“the Act of 1860” means the Landlord and Tenant Law Amendment Act, Ireland, 1860;

“the Act of 1891” means the Local Registration of Title (Ireland) Act, 1891;

“the Act of 1936” means the Labourers Act, 1936 ;

“the Act of 1948” means the Housing (Amendment) Act, 1948 (repealed by this Act);

“the Act of 1952” means the Housing (Amendment) Act, 1952 (repealed by this Act);

“the Act of 1960” means the Local Government (No. 2) Act, 1960 ;

“the Act of 1962” means the Housing (Loans and Grants) Act, 1962 (repealed by this Act);

“chief medical officer” has the meaning assigned to it by the Health Act, 1947 , as extended by the Health Authorities Act, 1960 , and for the purposes of this Act, the chief medical officer under the health authority within whose functional area (with respect to functions related to the operation of services other than services under the Mental Treatment Acts, 1945 to 1958) a town having town commissioners under the Towns Improvement (Ireland) Act, 1854, or an urban district is situate, shall be deemed to be the chief medical officer of the commissioners of such town or the council of the district, as the case may be;

“functions” includes powers and duties;

“health authority” has the same meaning as in the Health Act, 1947 , as amended by section 9 of the Health Authorities Act, 1960 ;

“house”, except in Part V of this Act, includes any outoffice, yard, garden or other land appurtenant thereto or usually enjoyed therewith and, except as aforesaid and in sections 15 , 16 and 17 of this Act, includes any part of a building used or suitable for use as a dwelling and “housing” shall be construed accordingly;

“housing authority” means, in the case of—

(a) a county health district (exclusive of any town having town commissioners under the Towns Improvement (Ireland) Act, 1854), the council of the county in which such county health district is situate,

(b) a county or other borough, the corporation of such county or other borough, and

(c) an urban district, the council of the district,

(d) a town having commissioners under the Towns Improvement (Ireland) Act, 1854, except as respects sections 26 ,

27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 and 43 of this Act, the commissioners of such town and, as respects the said sections, the council of the county in which the town is situate,

and references to the functional area of a housing authority shall be construed accordingly;

“land”, except in section 86 of this Act includes water and, in relation to the acquisition of land, includes any interest or right in or over land or water (including an interest or right granted by or held from the authority acquiring the land);

“local authority” has the same meaning as in section 2 of the Local Government Act, 1941 ;

“the Minister” means the Minister for Local Government;

“non-municipal town” means a place (not being a county borough, borough, urban district or town) the population of which, as ascertained by the census of population which for the time being is the last published census of population, exceeds one thousand;

“owner”, except in Part V of this Act, in relation to any dwelling, house, building or other land means a person, other than a mortgagee not in possession, who, whether in his own right or as trustee or agent for any other person, is entitled to receive the rack rent of the dwelling, house, building or other land, or where the dwelling, house, building or other land is not let at a rack rent, would be so entitled if it were so let;

“person”, except in this section and in sections 15 and 34 of this Act, does not include a housing authority;

“prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made by the Minister;

“public utility society” means a society registered under the Industrial and Provident Societies Acts, 1893 to 1936, or a friendly society registered under the Friendly Societies Acts, 1896 to 1953, or a trade union registered under the Trade Union Acts, 1871 to 1952, whose objects include the erection of houses or a body which satisfies the Minister that its objects are wholly philanthropic and include the provision of houses;

“the registering authority” means the registering authority under the Act of 1891;

“Registry of Deeds” means the office established by the Registration of Deeds Act, 1707;

“reserved function” means—

(a) with respect to the council of a county (or an elective body for the purposes of the County Management Acts, 1940 to 1955) a reserved function for the purposes of the County Management Acts, 1940 to 1955,

(b) with respect to the corporation of a county borough, a reserved function for the purposes of the Acts relating to the management of the county borough;

“rural area” means an area no place in which is within a county borough, borough, urban district, town or non-municipal town;

“Small Dwellings Acquisition Acts” means the Small Dwellings Acquisition Acts, 1899 to 1962;

“state land” means land which is state land within the meaning of the Act of 1936 and which belongs to the State on the commencement of section 105 of this Act.

(2) Any approval or consent required by this Act to be given by the Minister may be given either generally or as respects a particular case and where the relevant provisions of this Act so admit, any such approval or consent may be confined to any particular class of matter or thing or to a particular area or an area of a particular class.

(3) Any reference in this Act to performance of functions includes, with respect to powers, a reference to exercise of powers.

(4) Any reference in this Act to any other enactment shall, except so far as the context otherwise requires, be construed as a reference to that enactment as amended by or under any other enactment, including this Act.

3. —(1) Where a notice, copy of an order, or demand is required or authorised by this Act or any order or regulation made thereunder to be served on, given to or made of a person, it shall be addressed to him and shall be served on, given to or made of him in some one of the following ways:

(a) where it is addressed to him by name, by delivering it to him;

(b) by leaving it at the address at which he ordinarily resides or, in a case in which an address for service has been furnished, at that address;

(c) by sending it by post in a prepaid registered letter addressed to him at the address at which he ordinarily resides or, in a case in which an address for service has been furnished, at that address;

(d) where the address at which he ordinarily resides cannot be ascertained by reasonable inquiry and the notice, copy or demand is so required or authorised to be served, given or made in respect of any land or premises or works thereon, by delivering it to some person over sixteen years of age resident or employed on such land or premises or by affixing it in a conspicuous position on or near such land or premises.

(2) Where a notice, copy of an order, or demand is required by this Act or any order or regulation made thereunder to be served on, given to, or made of an owner or occupier of any land or premises and the name of the owner or of the occupier, as the case may be, cannot be ascertained by reasonable inquiry, it may be addressed to “the owner” or “the occupier”, as the case may require, without naming him.

(3) For the purposes of this section, a company within the meaning of the Companies Act, 1963 , shall be deemed to be ordinarily resident at its registered office, and every other body corporate and every unincorporated body shall be deemed to be ordinarily resident at its principal office or place of business.

(4) Where a repairs notice, a notice mentioned in subsection (4) of section 66 of this Act, a notice to treat within the meaning of Part V of this Act or a notice mentioned in subsection (4) of section 117 of this Act is served on or given to a person by affixing it under paragraph (d) of subsection (1) of this section, a copy of the notice shall, within two weeks thereafter, be published in at least one newspaper circulating in the area in which the person is last known to have resided.

(5) A person who, at any time during the period of three months after a document is affixed under paragraph (d) of subsection (1) of this section, removes, damages or defaces the documentwithout lawful authority shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding ten pounds.

(6) Where the Minister is satisfied that reasonable grounds exist for dispensing with the publication, serving or giving under this Act or under any order or regulation made thereunder, of a notice, copy of an order, or demand and that dispensing with the publication, serving, giving or making of the notice, copy or demand will not cause injury or wrong, he may dispense with the publication, serving or giving of the notice or copy and every such dispensation shall have effect according to the tenor thereof.

(7) A dispensation under the foregoing subsection may be given either before or after the time when the notice or copy would, but for the dispensation, be required to be published, served or given and either before or after the doing of any act to which the notice or copy would, but for the dispensation, be a condition precedent.

4. —(1) A housing authority may for any purposes connected with this Act, by notice in writing require the occupier of any land or any person receiving, whether for himself or for another, rent out of any land to state in writing to the authority within a specified period ending not less than twenty-one days after being so required, particulars of the estate, interest or right by virtue of which he occupies such land or receives such rent, as the case may be, and the name and address (so far as they are known to him) of every person who to his knowledge has any estate or interest in or right over or in respect of such land.

(2) Any person who is required under this section to state any matter or thing and either fails to state the matter or thing within the period specified under this section, or when stating such matter or thing makes a statement in writing which to his knowledge is false or misleading in a material respect shall be guilty of an offence under the section and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding twenty-five pounds.

5. —(1) The Minister may make regulations either for the purposes of any section of this Act which admits of being executed subject to regulations, or prescribing any matter referred to in this Act as prescribed.

(2) Every regulation made by the Minister under this Act other than section 114 shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made, and if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by either House within the next twenty-one days on which that House has sat after the regulation has been laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

(3) No regulation which includes provision in respect of a payment to be made by the Minister shall be made by the Minister under this Act without the consent to that provision of the Minister for Finance.

6. —(1) The enactments mentioned in the First Schedule to this Act are hereby repealed to the extent specified in the third column of that Schedule.

(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1) of this section, grants under any enactment repealed by that subsection may be made in respect of works commenced before the repeal of the enactment.

(3) Where, as respects the provision or reconstruction of a house or the execution of works (including the provision and installation of a private water supply and private sewerage facilities), a grant is made under an enactment repealed by this Act and but for subsection (1) of this section an enactment providing for—

(a) the reduction of the rateable valuation of a tenement for rating purposes,

(b) the non-increase of the rateable valuation of a tenement within a stated period,

would have applied, such enactment shall, as respects the tenement, continue to apply as if this Act had not been enacted.

(4) In this section, “rating purposes” has the same meaning as in section 33 of this Act.