[2024] UKUT 93 (LC)

Part 1 of the Housing Act 2004 Act established a Housing Health and Safety Rating System, and requires local housing authorities to enforce housing standards in their area. Provision is made for category 1 and category 2 hazards to be defined in regulations, category 1 being those presenting a more serious risk; the regulations are the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (England) Regulations 2005.

Sections 5 and 7 of the 2004 Act give the local housing authority a duty to take enforcement action in relation to category 1 hazards, and a power to do so in relation to category 2 hazards on any residential premises; the available enforcement actions range from an improvement notice to a demolition order

Sections 11 and following make provision about improvement notices, which are to specify the hazard to which they relate, to state what remedial action is required, and to say by when the work must commence and by when it must be completed. Section 30(1) provides that a person upon whom an improvement notice was served commits an offence if he fails to comply with it, and section 30(5) says that in proceedings against such a person it is a defence that he had a reasonable excuse for failing to comply with the notice.