S Butt v London Borough of Hackney. County Court at Central London. 22 February 2016 (PDF of judgment) This was another in a number of county court judgments on section 204 Housing Act 1996 appeals which turned on the question of vulnerability after the...
Right to be Forgotten?
When does temporary accommodation become settled so as to break the chain of causation of intentional homelessness? The appeal in Huda v LB Redbridge [2016] EWCA Civ 709 concerned a homeless applicant and his family, who were effectively forgotten about by...
Circumstances and consequences. Accommodation pending appeal.
Our thanks to Garden Court chambers and Justine Compton for their note of this case. Where a homeless application has requested a s.202 review of the local authority's decision on duty, the authority has a power, but not an obligation to provide temporary...
A compendium of vulnerability cases
Following on from our post on Mohammed v Southwark LBC, here are notes on a further three appeals to the County Court under section 204 Housing Act 1996, all related to decisions on priority need (or lack of it) through vulnerability. Ward v LB Haringey....
Weekend Miscellaneous
Various bits and pieces on subletting and homelessness. (Edited 15 September 2016 This post originally went into detail about an article on Property 118 setting out a Rent to Rent arrangement where the rent to rent tenant would have an assured shorthold...
Perversity in Brent
Our thanks to Garden Court Chambers, Hackney Law Centre and Liz Davies for their note of this case. Cieicierska v Brent LBC. Central London County Court, 5 September 2016. Ms C, a single parent with 3 children, was owed the full housing duty by Brent and was...
What do points mean? (No prizes)
Woolfe, R (On the Application Of) v London Borough of Islington [2016] EWHC 1907 (Admin) Another allocation judicial review, related, but perhaps distinct from the line of 'reasonable preference' cases we have previously seen. The issue, in part, Islington's...
Vulnerability after Hotak/Johnson/Kanu
I strongly suspect that at some point in the next year we will get at least one Court of Appeal case on the meaning of 'vulnerability' in homeless priority decisions after the Supreme Court decision in Hotak v Southwark LBC [2015] UKSC 30 (our note). In the...
Housing needs and household members
Jones v Luton Borough Council [2016] EWHC 2036 (Admin) This was a judicial review of a decision by Luton Council Housing Appeals and Review Panel not to offer Mr Jones a tenancy of the property of which Mr J's late father was the tenant, but instead offer a...
When does the refusal to provide accommodation to an applicant breach Article 3?
In R (GS) v Camden LBC [2016] EWHC 1762 (Admin), the High Court was required to consider whether a Swiss national, who was not present in the UK lawfully, was entitled to accommodation under the Care Act 2014 or, alternatively, whether Camden were obliged to...
Facing the Facts
R (on the application of Hoyte) v London Borough of Southwark [2016] EWHC 1665 Admin is a useful decision of the High Court on the subject of repeat homelessness applications. Ms Hoyte is a 58 year old woman with a history of mental health problems and a...
Gatekeeping special
This has been quite a week for issues about Local Authorities gatekeeping homeless applications coming to the fore. This post addresses practices and policies of three councils. Eastbourne BC, LB Haringey and Bournemouth BC. Eastbourne BC Eastbourne's...