Garden Court's bulletin for 14 July (I'm catching up after the holiday) mentions a couple of interesting Local Government Ombudsman's reports on the operations of Homeless Units in Lambeth and in Haringey. Complaints 07/B/01138 & 07/B/05232 against...
Brief news
On applications for permission to appeal to the House of Lords: Omar v Birmingham City Council - Omar refused permission to appeal from this Court of Appeal judgment. Very disappointing given the ambiguity, to put it mildly, of the Court of Appeal judgment...
S.204 Appeal out of time
Barrett v LB Southwark [2008] EWHC 1568 (Comm) was an appeal of a dismissed application for permission to make a s.204 appeal out of time on an intentional homelessness decision upheld at s.202 review. For some reason it was heard in the Commercial Court (?)...
In passing…
The Housing and Regeneration bill has been amended so that homeless applicants with families who are subject to immigration control will have that family count towards priority need. This will apply for UK/EU/Commonwealth citizens. Good. That will hopefully...
Deficiency in a decision
London Borough of Lambeth v Johnston [2008] EWCA Civ 690 is an appeal to the Court of Appeal from a County Court s.204 appeal. The brief facts - the Claimant applied to Lambeth as homeless in September 2004. He told the officer he had an alcohol problem...
Suitability and marital harmony
Ahad v London Borough of Tower Hamlets [2008] EWCA Civ 606 was an application for permission to appeal from a s.204 appeal concerning a refusal of an offer of permanent accommodation. Tower Hamlets had discharged duty on the basis that the appellant had...
Third party costs against Councils?
Very interesting post on Housed this evening on the possibilities of seeking a costs order against a local authority for a possession order obtained by a private landlord where the LA has refused to take a homeless application from the tenant until they are...
Interim Accommodation and Judicial Review
Lusamba, R (on the application of) v London Borough of Islington [2008] EWHC 1149 (Admin) concerned a judicial review application on failure to decide on provision of interim accommodation pending review of a negative s.184 HA 1996 decision. It raises...
Caravan sites and Tomlin orders
A couple of interesting permission to appeal hearings have appeared on Bailii. Permission granted in both cases for Court of Appeal hearing. Lee v Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council [2008] EWCA Civ 523 concerns whether a Local Authority should have...
Cardiff homeless – tactical lessons?
Thanks to Housed and Garden Court's bulletin for the pointer to this Ombudsman's report [pdf] on Cardiff's failure to provide temporary accommodation pending enquiries on what was a prima facie case of 'not reasonable to remain' homelessness. Cardiff were...
Fair and commonsense reviews
So, then Omar v City of Westminster [2008] EWCA Civ 421 Briefly, the facts were that Mr Omar made a homeless application to Westminster. His household consisted of his wife and his infant son who had just been born and was, at the time of the application was...
Report to come…
I previously mentioned a Garden Court report on Omar v Westminster. There is also a brief Times report here. The full judgment is now out on Bailii and is interesting. Omar v City of Westminster [2008] EWCA Civ 421 (03 March 2008) on reviewing suitability of...