Housing and Building Control Act 1984
| Year | 1984 |
Housing and BuildingControl Act 1984
1984 CHAPTER 29
An Act to make further provision with respect to the disposal of, and the rights of secure tenants of, dwelling-houses held by local authorities and other bodies in England and Wales; to amend the law of England and Wales relating to the supervision of building work, the building regulations, sanitation and buildings and building control; and for connected purposes.
[26th June 1984]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I
Rights of Secure TenantsDisposal of Public Sector Dwelling-Houses and
Right to buy
Right to buy
1 Extension to certain cases where landlord does not own freehold.
(1) The provisions of this section and of Schedule 1 to this Act shall have effect for the purpose of extending the right to buy conferred by Chapter I of Part I of the Housing Act 1980 (in this Part of this Act referred to as ‘the 1980 Act’) to certain cases where the landlord does not own the freehold of the dwelling-house.
(2) In section 1(1) of the 1980 Act (right to acquire freehold or long lease) for paragraphs (a ) and (b ) there shall be substituted the following paragraphs—
‘(a ) if the dwelling-house is a house and the landlord owns the freehold, to acquire the freehold of the dwelling-house;
(b ) if the landlord does not own the freehold or (whether or not the landlord owns it) the dwelling-house is a flat, to be granted a lease of the dwelling-house; and’
(3) At the end of section 2(3) of the 1980 Act (exceptions to right to buy) there shall be inserted the words ‘or has an interest sufficient to grant a lease in pursuance of this Chapter—
(a ) where the dwelling-house is a house, for a term exceeding 21 years commencing with the relevant time;
(b ) where the dwelling-house is a flat, for a term of not less than 50 years commencing with that time.’
(4) The amendments made by this section and Schedule 1 to this Act (except paragraph 10) shall not apply where the landlord's notice under section 5(1) of the 1980 Act was served before the commencement date.
2 Variation of circumstances in which right does not arise.
(1) Subsection (5) of section 2 of the 1980 Act (exceptions to the right to buy) shall be omitted and for paragraphs 1 and 2 of Part I of Schedule 1 to that Act (circumstances in which the right to buy does not arise) there shall be substituted the following paragraph—
1.
(1) The dwelling-house either forms part of, or is within the curtilage of, a building to which sub-paragraph (2) below applies or is situated in a cemetery and (in either case) the dwelling-house was let to the tenant or to a predecessor in title of his in consequence of the tenant or predecessor being in the employment of the landlord or of a body specified in sub-paragraph (3) below.
(2) This sub-paragraph applies to a building if the building or so much of it as is held by the landlord—
(a ) is held mainly for purposes other than housing purposes; and
(b ) consists mainly of accommodation other than housing accommodation;
and in this sub-paragraph 'housing purposes' means the purposes for which dwelling-houses are held by local authorities under Part V of the 1957 Act or purposes corresponding to those purposes.
(3) The bodies referred to in sub-paragraph (1) above are—
(a ) a local authority;
(b ) a development corporation;
(c) an urban development corporation within the meaning of Part XVI of the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980;
(d ) the Commission for the New Towns;
(e ) a county council;
(f ) the governors of an aided school; and
(g ) the Development Board for Rural Wales.’
(2) For paragraphs 3 and 4 of that Part of that Schedule there shall be substituted the following paragraphs—
‘3. The dwelling-house has features which are substantially different from those of ordinary dwelling-houses and which are designed to make it suitable for occupation by physically disabled persons and either—
3A
3A. The landlord or a predecessor of the landlord has carried out, for the purpose of making the dwelling-house suitable for occupation by physically disabled persons, one or more of the following alterations, namely—
3B
3B. The dwelling-house is one of a group of dwelling-houses which it is the practice of the landlord to let for occupation by persons who are suffering or have suffered from a mental disorder (within the meaning of the Mental Health Act 1983) and a social service or special facilities are provided wholly or partly for the purpose of assisting those persons.
4. The dwelling-house is one of a group of dwelling-houses which are particularly suitable, having regard to their location, size, design, heating systems and other features, for occupation by persons of pensionable age and which it is the practice of the landlord to let for occupation by such persons, or for occupation by such persons and physically disabled persons, and special facilities are provided wholly or mainly for the purpose of assisting those persons which consist of or include either—
(3) For paragraph 5 of that Part of that Schedule there shall be substituted the following paragraph—
5.
(1) The Secretary of State has determined, on the application of the landlord, that the right to buy is not to be capable of being exercised with respect to the dwelling-house; and he shall so determine if, and only if, he is satisfied that the dwelling-house—
(a ) is particularly suitable, having regard to its location, size, design, heating system and other features, for occupation by persons of pensionable age; and
(b ) was let to the tenant or to a predecessor in title of his for occupation by a person of pensionable age or a physically disabled person (whether the tenant or predecessor or any other person).
(2) An application for a determination under this paragraph shall be made within four weeks or, in a case falling within section 5(2) of this Act, eight weeks of the service of the notice claiming to exercise the right to buy.’
(4) The amendments made by subsections (1) and (3) above shall not apply where the tenant's claim to exercise the right to buy was made before the commencement date; and the amendment made by subsection (2) above shall not apply where the landlord's notice under section 5(1) of the 1980 Act was served before that date.
3 Further periods to count for qualification and discount.
(1) For subsections (3) to (7) of section 1 of the 1980 Act (determination of qualifying period) there shall be substituted the following subsections—
(3) The right to buy does not arise unless the period which, in accordance with Part I of Schedule 1A to this Act, is to be taken into account for the purposes of this subsection is a period of not less than two years.
(4) Where the secure tenancy is a joint tenancy the condition in subsection (3) above need be satisfied with respect to one only of the joint tenants.’
(2) For subsection (1) of section 7 of the 1980 Act (discount) there shall be substituted the following subsections—
(1) A person exercising the right to buy is entitled to a discount equal, subject to the following provisions of this section, to the following percentage of the price before discount, that is to say—
(a ) if the period which, in accordance with Part I of Schedule 1A to this Act, is to be taken into account for the purposes of discount is less than three years, 32 per cent.; and
(b ) if that period is three years or more, 32 per cent. plus one per cent. for each complete year by which that period exceeds two years, but not together exceeding 60 per cent.;
and where joint tenants exercise the right to buy, that Part of that Schedule shall be construed as if for the secure tenant there were substituted that one of the joint tenants whose...
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