Anon v LB Lewisham, Central London County Court, 5 July 2018 (Transcript of Judgment here) This was a s.204 appeal of a s.202 review on suitability of temporary accommodation provided to the appellant by Lewisham. This was originally temporary accommodation...
Weekend assortment
Some bits and pieces, of various levels of jaw dropping. MHCLG have produced updates for the Homelessness Code of Guidance. Under Chapter 8 'Priority need', there is a new section 8.40: 8.40 Any person who may reasonably be expected to die of a progressive...
Equality Act and ‘reasonable to remain’
Lomax v Gosport Borough Council (2018) EWCA Civ 1846 This was a second appeal on a homeless application by Ms L to Gosport. Ms L "suffers from a number of both physical and mental problems. She is wheelchair bound and is confined to bed for large portions of...
Facing up to it
Kamara v London Borough Of Southwark (2018) EWCA Civ 1616 In Makisi & Ors v Birmingham City Council (2011) EWCA Civ 355 (our report), the Court of Appeal decided that the right to make 'oral submissions' in response to a ‘minded to’ letter under 8(2) of...
A question of authority – settled accommodation
Well now. I'm not sure what to make of this. The Supreme Court has refused permission to appeal in Doka v London Borough of Southwark. But... Doka v Southwark concerned what could amount to 'settled accommodation' for homelessness matters, and specifically...
Late and late again – intentional homelessness and benefit claims
Oduneye v Brent London Borough Council (2018) EWCA Civ 1595 (not on Bailii yet - judgment on Lexis) This was a second appeal from a s.204 appeal on Brent's decision that Ms O was intentionally homeless. Ms O was in person. She had sought an adjournment to...
Homelessness and capacity
In WB v W DC (2018) EWCA Civ 928, the Court of Appeal revisited the question of whether a person without capacity to make choices about their accommodation can make an application for homelessness assistance. The House of Lords in R v Tower Hamlets LBC ex p...
Late review decisions and homeless appeals
Muloko v Newham LBC, County Court at Central London 6 April 2018 This is from a note of the judgment in June 2018 Legal Action - Housing: Recent Developments. I usually wait a month or two on reporting cases from Legal Action, but I report it now as it has...
Capacity and applications: Homelessness
Last night, I was in Leeds at the wonderful Centre for Law and Social Justice, and discussed with some scholars and lawyers (over a few drinks) the way in which housing law appears to have become its own isolated and insular sub-discipline. This was...
Accommodation pending Appeal – where to appeal a refusal?
Davis v Watford Borough Council (2018) EWCA Civ 529 A technical appeal on a point of construction of Housing Act 1996 on homelessness appeals that has considerable practical importance. Usually when a s.204 appeal is being issued, and the council has refused...
More vulnerability
Rother DC v Freeman-Loach [2018] EWCA Civ 368 is the latest installment on the interpretation of vulnerability for the purposes of homelessness law, with a sting in the tail about s 204A appeals. Mr Freeman-Loach suffered from ostoarthritis, anxiety and...
Bits and pieces
Yes, I know we still need to write up Rother District Council v Freeman-Roach (2018) EWCA Civ 368 on the approach to 'significantly more vulnerable' in homeless review decisions, and we will, we will. And there are other cases too. I also want to write...