# Housing Act 1985, Section 183: Meaning of “house”, “flat” and “dwelling-house”.


(1) The following provisions apply to the interpretation of “house”, “flat” and “dwelling-house” when used in this Part.
(2) A dwelling-house is a house if, and only if, it (or so much of its as does not consist of land included by virtue of section 184) is a structure reasonably so called; so that—
(a) where a building is divided horizontally, the flats or other units into which it is divided are not houses;
(b) where a building is divided vertically, the units into which it is divided may be houses;
(c) where a building is not structurally detached, it is not a house if a material part of it lies above or below the remainder of the structure.
(3) A dwelling-house which is not a house is a flat.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/68/section/183 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/housing-act-1985/section-183
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.