Section 104 — Housing Act 2004: The health and safety condition

The health and safety condition 104 1 This section explains what “the health and safety condition” is for the purposes of section 102.

2 The health and safety condition is that the making of an interim management order is necessary for the purpose of protecting the health, safety or welfare of persons occupying the house, or persons occupying or having an estate or interest in any premises in the vicinity.

3 A threat to evict persons occupying a house in order to avoid the house being required to be licensed under Part 2 may constitute a threat to the welfare of those persons for the purposes of subsection (2). This does not affect the generality of that subsection.

4 The health and safety condition is not to be regarded as satisfied for the purposes of section 102(2)(b)(ii) or (3)(c)(ii) where both of the conditions in subsections (5) and (6) are satisfied.

5 The first condition is that the local housing authority either—

a (in a case within section 102(2)(b)(ii)) are required by section 5 (general duty to take enforcement action in respect of category 1 hazards) to take a course of action within subsection (2) of that section in relation to the house, or b (in a case within section 102(3)(c)(ii)) consider that on the revocation coming into force they will be required to take such a course of action.

6 The second condition is that the local housing authority consider that the health, safety or welfare of the persons in question would be adequately protected by taking that course of action.