11. Section 56 of the principal Act is hereby repealed and the following substituted therefor: —“Power to direct owners or occupiers, inter alia, to cleanse, paint, lime-wash and colour-wash buildings |
56.—(1) Where the Commissioner, the Director, a Medical Officer of Health or a Public Health Engineer is of the opinion that any house or building or any part thereof is in an unclean, grimy, neglected, unkempt or insanitary condition, he may by an order in writing direct the owner or the occupier or tenant thereof to take all or any of the following measures at the expense of such owner, occupier or tenant within a time and date to be specified in such order: —(a) | remove all refuse, rubbish or garbage within such house, building or part thereof, or in the immediate vicinity of such house or building, to such place, or otherwise dispose of the same at such place, as may be specified in such order; | (b) | cleanse such house, building or part thereof, internally or externally, or both internally and externally, and if necessary disinfect the same; | (c) | paint, lime-wash or colour-wash such house or building or part thereof, internally or externally, or both internally and externally; and | (d) | carry out such minor repairs and renovations as are necessary or incidental to any work required to be performed under paragraph (c) of this subsection. |
(2) Any owner, occupier or tenant who fails or neglects to comply with all or any of the requirements of such order within the time and the date specified therein shall be guilty of an offence under this Act and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars and to a further fine not exceeding fifty dollars for every day during which such non-compliance continues. |
(3) Without prejudice to any proceedings under subsection (2) of this section and whether before or after the commencement or conclusion of such proceedings, or without instituting such proceedings, the Commissioner, the Director, a Medical Officer of Health, a Public Health Engineer, or any person authorised in that behalf by any of them, or a public health auxiliary, may enter into the house, building or any part thereof which is the subject matter of such order and take or cause to be taken such measures as have been specified in such order, and the costs and expenses thereby incurred shall be paid by the person in default and may be recovered in the manner provided under section 119 or section 122 of this Act. |
(4) The Commissioner, the Director, any Medical Officer of Health or Public Health Engineer or any person authorised in that behalf by any of them, or any owner who has been served with an order under subsection (1) of this section or any person authorised in that behalf by such owner, may for the purposes of subsection (1) of this section, enter between the hours of six o’clock in the morning and six o’clock in the evening into and upon any house or building to make any survey or inspection or to execute any work required by such order or authorised by the said subsection; and the occupier or tenant thereof shall, for this purpose, render such assistance as may be necessary (including the shifting of movable objects within the house or building) to enable the survey, inspection or execution of such work to be proceeded with and completed as expeditiously as possible. |
(5) No person shall, except with the consent of the occupier or tenant, enter any house or building by virtue of the powers conferred by this section, without at least six hours’ previous notice being given to the occupier or tenant. |
(6) (a) Where any order made under the provisions of subsection (1) of this section contains any direction for the painting, lime-washing or colour-washing of the external part of any building which consists of three or more storeys including the ground floor, and the owners, occupiers or tenants thereof are unable to agree on a colour scheme for the painting, lime-washing or colour-washing of the external part of such building, the Commissioner, the Director or any officer authorised in that behalf by either of them may, in his discretion, after ascertaining the wishes of the majority of such owners, occupiers or tenants or otherwise, as he may deem fit, determine such colour scheme and direct all such owners, occupiers or tenants to adopt such colour scheme. | (b) | Where any painting, lime-washing or colour-washing of the external part of any such building is carried out under the provisions of subsection (3) of this section, the Commissioner, the Director or any officer authorised in that behalf by either of them, may, in his discretion, after ascertaining the wishes of the majority of the owners, occupiers or tenants concerned or otherwise, as he may deem fit, determine such colour scheme. |
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Costs and expenses of work executed within controlled premises recoverable by owner |
56A.—(1) Notwithstanding the provisions of any written law, where any controlled premises are the subject of an order under subsection (1) of section 56 of this Act, such proportion of the costs and expenses incurred by an owner in complying with such order as relates to any work executed only within the interior of the house or building may be recovered by the owner from the tenant thereof in equal instalments over a period of twenty-four months; and in the event of a change of tenancy, any outstanding balance due to the owner may be recovered by him from any subsequent tenant or tenants in equal instalments of the same amount.(2) Nothing in subsection (1) of this section shall be construed as precluding any owner and tenant from agreeing upon a mutually acceptable arrangement for the payment of any amount due under that subsection. |
(3) The amount of costs and expenses payable under subsection (1) of this section and, if necessary, the apportionment of the same, and any question of liability shall, in the case of any dispute between the owner and the tenant, be summarily ascertained and determined by a Magistrate’s Court or, if the amount exceeds two thousands dollars, by a District Court; and where any such amount which a party is liable to pay has been determined by a Magistrate’s Court or a District Court, it may be recovered as if it were a fine imposed by such Magistrate’s Court or District Court. |
(4) Where there is neglect, failure or refusal to pay the amount of the costs and expenses that a party is liable to pay under subsection (1) of this section, and the matter is not the subject of a dispute to which subsection (3) of this section applies, such amount may be recovered in the same manner as if it were a fine imposed by a Magistrate’s Court. |
(5) An appeal shall lie to the High Court from any decision of a Magistrate’s Court or District Court under this section, and the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cap. 132) shall, mutatis mutandis, apply to all such appeals. |
(6) For the purposes of this section —“controlled premises” means any house or building that is subject to control pursuant to the provisions of the Control (Cap. 242) of Rent Ordinance; |
“tenant” means the tenant of controlled premises in respect of which a tenancy exists and includes a statutory tenant within the meaning of Part IV of the Control of Rent Ordinance and in the case of a sub-tenancy a sub-tenant to whom the controlled premises are, or part thereof is, sublet.”. |
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