Commentary on Sections Part 1 - Housing Conditions Chapter 2 – Improvement Notices, Prohibition Orders and Hazard Awareness Notices Section 21: Prohibition orders relating to category 2 hazards: power of authority to make order
110.Subsection (1) provides a discretionary power for an LHA to make a prohibition order if it is satisfied that a category 2 hazard exists on residential premises and the premises in respect of which the order is to be made are not the subject of a management order under Part 4 of the Act.
111.Subsection (3) applies subsections (3) of section 20, which provide that a prohibition order may prohibit the use of residential premises which are dwellings or HMOs, one or more flats contained in a building, the common parts of the building containing one or more flats, or external common parts of such buildings. It also applies subsection (4) which allows the prohibition of the use of the non-residential element of a building containing one or more flats, but only if the deficiency giving rise to the hazard is located there and the prohibition is necessary for the health or safety of actual or potential residential occupiers of the flat or flats within the premises.
112.Under subsection (4), an order may apply to more than one category 2 hazard and may relate to both category 1 and category 2 hazards while subsection (5) provides that prohibition orders under sections 20 and 21 can be combined if they relate to the same premises.