FABIAN 
TRACT No. 68. 
THE 

Tenant's Sanitary Catechism 


(FOR PLACES OUTSIDE LONDON). 


The attention of householders and lodgers is directed to the 
powers given to the local authorities by the Public Health Act, 
r87 5 (see pages 3 and 4). Occupiers are requested to read the 
questions below ; and if their houses are not in a sanitary condition 
as prescribed by the Act, they should fill in the spaces under the 
heading "Answers,'' and forward this paper, either signed by themselves 
or not, to the Sanitary Inspector for the district, or to the 
Chairman or members of the Local Sanitary Authority. Persons 
employed in an insanitary workshop should use the form to describe 
the workshop and send it to the Factory Inspector, or direct to the 
Home Office, Whitehall, London. 

Th1s leaflet may also be used by " Clarion Scouts" and other persons desirous of 
enquiring into the sanitary condition of any village or district in England or Wales 
(except London, which has a separate Act). The questions should then be asked bythe enquirer, and the blanks filled up by him. The results, when collected, can be 
tabulated and published in the local press, sent to the local sanitary authority, the 
County Council and the Local Government Board, or otherwise made use of. 

QUESTIONS. 
ANSWERS. 

1. Name of Town or Village. 
2. Name of Street and No. of House. 
3· N arne of the occupier or occupiers. 

4· Name and address of the reputed 
owner. 

<;, Has the house a water-closet or 
an~earth-closet for the sole use of its 
inmates? 

(See Clause 36.) 

6. If a water-closet, is it properly 
flushed with water? 
(See Clause 40.) 

7. If not, how many (a) houses, and 
(b) persons use the same closet ? 

QUESTIONS. ANSWERS. 

8. (a) Is the kitchen or scullery fitted 
with a proper sink? (b) Is it in sound 
condition? 
(See Clause 41.) 

9· Is there a properly constructed 
dust-bin or ashpit for the sole use of 
the inmates? 

(See Clauses 36 and 40.) 

IO. Is it regularly emptied ? 
(See Clause 43). 


I I. Are the floors throughout m a 
proper condition of repair ? 
I2. Are the ceilings and walls clean 
and in repair ? 

13. Is the roof sound and watertight? 
14. Is any part of the house in such 
a condition as to be dangerous or injurious 
to the health of the inmates? 
(See Clause 46.) 

I 5-Is• the water-supply abundant? 
Are taps, etc., conveniently situated? 
(See Clause 62.) 

I 6. Is the back-yard properly pavedand drained ? 

r7. How many rooms have you in 
your house? 

I8. What is the size of the garden, 
if any? 

I 9· What weekly rent do you pay? 

20. Is the supply of good cottagesin your parish or town equal to the 
demand? 
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PUBLIC HEALTH ACT, 1875· 

SANITARY CLOSETS AND DRAINS. 
Clause 36.-"If a house within the district of a local authority appears to suclr 
authority, by the report of their surveyor or inspector of nuisances, to be without sufficient 
water closet, earth closet, or privy, and an ashpit furnished with proper doors 
and coverings, the local authority sh;tll, by written notice, require the owner or occupier 
of the house, within a reasonable time therein specified, to provide a sufficient 
water closet, earth closet, or privy, and an ash pit furnished as aforesaid, or either of 
them. as the case may require. 
"If such notice is not complied with, the local authority may . . . do the work 
thereby required to be done, and may recover in a summary manner from the owner 
the expenses, etc. . . . Provided that where a water closet, earth closet, or privy 
has been and is used in common by the inmates of two or more houses, or if, in the 
opinion ofthe local authority, a water closet, earth closet, or privy may be so used, theyneed not require the same to be provided for each house." 
[N.B.-But the local authority should insist on each house having its own closet.] 
Clause 40.-Every local authority shall provide that all drains, water closets, earth 
closets, privies, ashpits and cesspools within their district be constructed and kept so 
as not to be a nuisance or injurious to health. 
Clause 43.-If a local authority who have themselves undertaken or contracted 
fo r the removal of house refuse from premises, or the cleansing of earth closets, privies, 
ash pits and cesspools, fail, without reasonable excuse, after notice in writing from the 
occupier of any house within their district, requiring them to remove any house refuse 
or to cleanse any earth closet, etc. the local authority shall be liable to pay 
to the occupitr of such house a penalty not exceeding five shillings for every dayduring which such default continues. 
Clause 41 gives the local authority power, If the drains of a house are in such a 
condition as to be " a nuisance or injurious to health," to compel the owner to put the 
same in good condition under penalty not exceeding ten shillings for every day'sfault after receipt of proper notice. 
Clause 157 gives the urban authority power to make bye-laws with respect to 
closets, ashpits, etc., and "to the closing of buildings or parts of buildings unfit for 
human habitation, and to prohibition of their use for such habitation." 

CLEAN AND HEALTHY HOUSES. 
Clause 46.-" Where, on the certificate of the Medic:1l Officer of Health, or of 
any two medical practitioners, it appears to any local authori(v that any house or partthereof is in such a _filthy or unwholesome condition that the health of any person is 
afficted or endangered thereby, or that the whitewashing, cleansing or purifying of any 
house or part thereof would lend to prevent or check infectious disease, the local authority 
shall give notice in writing to the owner or occupier of such house or part thereof 
to whitewash, cleanse or purify the same, as the case may require." 
Clause 47 authorizes the lo~al authority to do same and charge owners with expense. 
Clause 91 defines a nuisance as "Any premises in such a state as to be a nuisance 
or injurious to health." 
Clauses 94, 95, 96 give local authority power to abate a nuisance at court of 
summary jurisdiction if its order is not complied with. 
Clause 97 says: "Where the nuisance proved to exist is such as to render a house 
or building, in .the judgment of the court, unfit for. ht;man habitation, the cour~ n:tay 
prohibit the usmg thereof for that purpose until, m Its judgment, the house or buddmgis rendered fit for that purpose," after which the house may be declared habitable and 
be inhabited. 
Clause 62 gives local authority power to require houses to be supplied with water. 
Clause 93.-Who may Complain.-" Information of any nuimnce under this Act 
in the District of any local authority may be given to such local authority by any 
pe~·son aggrieved thereby or by any two inhabitant householders of such district, or by 
any officer of such authority, or by the relieving officer, or by any constable or officer 
of the police force of such district." 
Clause 31, Housing o/ the Working Classes Act, r89?• says :-" Four or ~ore 
householders by written complaint can compel the medical officer .of health m a 
locality to inspect houses that are considered unfit for human habitatiOn, and he 
is then bound to report the results of his inspection to the local authority." 


OFFENSIVE FACTORIES, 

Clause 114, Public Health Act, r875, says that if any house is rendered unfit for 
human habitation through offensive effluvia ari,ing from any factory adjoining, any 
ten inhabitants in an Urban District may complain to the local authority, who shall 
inquire into and abate it. A heavy fine may be imposed. 

NOTES. 

PARISH COUNCIL COTTAGES. 

(r) ln many localities where the supply of cottages is not equal to the demand, 
and where the wages earned by the cottagers will allow of it, any strict enforcement of 
the provisions of the Public Health Act given in this leaflet may cause the landlords 
to raise the rents. This should always be met by the tenants with an agitation for the 
construction of lower-rented sanitary dwellings by the proper local authority. For 
information on this point see Fabian Tract No. 63. The Housing of the Working 
Classes Act, r8go, Part III., enables the local sanitary authority (if the cottagers fight 
the question unitedly) to erect workmen's dwellings at rents that will checkmate the 
action of the private landlord in raising cottage rents. In addition, at the expirationof about 30 years the local authority, having paid off the capital loaned for the building 
of workmen's dwellings, will he able to let such dwellings for lower rents than 
before. Parish Councillors should use this leaflet and systematically visit every cottage 
in their parish and get these questions answere9. The collected facts should 
then be placed before the Parish Council, and a resolution passed calling on the 
District Council to remedy the insanitary condition of cottages in the parish. :\ case 
might often be made out for •municipal cottages on the score of bad accommodation 
and excessive rents. 
THE UNEMPLOYED. 

(2) If the facts collected by means of these leaflets are made use of in the 
early autumn, it will give the local authority sufficient time to give notice and to 
compel the landlords to abate nuisances directly after Christmas, thereby providing 
work for unemployed members of the building trade when it is most required. 
(3) In many of the poorer districts, the roads and streets which serve cottages 
are in a disgraceful condition owing to the fact that such thoroughfares have not been 
taken over by the local authority. To alter this, get up a petition to the local counci l, 
call their attention to the slate of the road or street, the time it has been in a bad con-
dition,and ask them to put Clause rso of the Public Health Act, r875, into operation. 
If they respond favorably, the road will be sewered, paved, channelled and metalled at 
the expense of the landlord frontagers in the road, after which it will become a public 
highway. Now, if notice to put such roads in order be given in the spring-time. the 
necessary "red-tapeism" can be got through by Christmas, and the making of the 
new road at the landlords' expense will provide useful work for the unemployed in the 
slack months of January, February and March. 
FABIAN TRACTS. rd. each, or gd. per doz. 
No. 6g. The Difficulties of Individualism. By SIDNEY WEBB. 

62. Parish and District Councils : what they are and what they can do. 
54· The Humanizing of the Poor Law. By]. F. 0AKESHOTT. 
5I. Socialism: True and False. By SIDNEY WEBB. 
42. Christian Socialism. By Rev. S.D. HEADLAM. 
FABIAN LEAFLETS. 6 for rd., or r/-per roo. 
No. 68. The Tenant's Sanitary Catechism. 
, 63. Parish Council Cottages and how to get them. 


56. Questions for Parish Councillors. 
57· , Rural District Councillors. 
, 59· , , Urban District Councillors. 
, =58. Allotments and how to get them. 


rg. What the Farm Laborer Wants. 

r. Why are the Many Poor ? 
"FABIAN ESSAYS IN SOCIALISM," One Shilling, post free 
The Set of Fabian TraCts, 2/3 post free; bound in Buckram, 3/9 post free 

THE FABIAN SOCIETY, 276 STRAND, LONDON, W.C