The applicants who were Turkish, and had moved from England to Turkey in order to undertake a business activity there, but it had not proved successful and they then returned to England, and sought to be treated as homeless.
Held: The court accepted that ignorance as to the availability of accommodation on their return was capable of being a relevant fact when considering whether they were intentionally homeless.

Judges:

Roch J

Citations:

(1991) 23 HLR 260

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Ugiagbe v London Borough of Southwark CA 10-Feb-2009
The claimant said that the defendant had acted unlawfully in finding her to homeless intentionally. Her landlord had said that she was to leave. She sought housing but did not at first follow the homelessness procedure. She left the house though . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.286145

Application for leave to appeal

Citations:

[2001] EWCA Civ 1515

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Housing

Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.218425

The claimant had been granted an introductory tenancy. He appealed a possession order. The council had issued a notice of its intention to seek possession, but then after a review made a decision not to seek possession. It later issued a notice again saying possession would be sought.
Held: Following Stone, the authority was able to suspend any such notice, but the court could look at the entire series of events, and to seek the actual nature of those decisions. In this case the relevant decision had not been supported by reasons, and the appeal was allowed.

Citations:

Times 10-Mar-2003, [2003] EWHC 222 (Admin)

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Housing Act 1996 128(3)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Cardiff City Council v Stone CA 29-Jan-2002
A local authority having served a notice on the tenant that the tenancy granted was under the section and therefore introductory, was not obliged to reserve a notice before beginning possession proceedings, even though several months may have passed . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.180082

Where a housing authority had considered and dealt with the rehousing of a substantial family, a renewed application by an adult daughter could be refused. The refusal to accept accommodation by the mother was effective as an offer for the entire household, which included in this instance the applicant. The offer and effect of its refusal was binding even though the daughter did not know of it.

Citations:

Times 11-Oct-2000

Statutes:

Housing Act 1985

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Housing

Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.85164

Once a warrant for possession had been executed for repossession in mortgage arrears action, it was no longer possible to suspend the warrant again under the Act. Court’s own inherent jurisdiction possible basis where manifold error.

Citations:

Gazette 15-Jul-1998

Statutes:

Administration of Justice Act 1970 36

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Housing

Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.83863

The applicant had committed certain acts of theft. She later moved house, but was then convicted and imprisoned. She lost her house whilst in prison, and sought assistance as a homeless person. The authority deemed her to have become intentionally homeless.
Held: The fact of her move was not relevant, and there was no reason practical or in policy why she should not be treated as intentionally homeless.

Citations:

Times 26-Apr-2000

Statutes:

Housing Act 1996 191(1)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Housing

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.83737

The County Court had no power to grant an interim injunction without statutory provision. No power existed either to order the Local Authority to provide accommodation to a homelessness applicant pending a decision on the review.
Held: Parliament appropriately vested a discretion in the local authority to decide whether or not to house an applicant asking for a review of the authority’s decision under s 202, or appealing against the review under s 204. Local authorities are well used to dealing with these type of cases. They know the circumstances of the applicants, and the range and availability of accommodation in their area. They have policies in place to guide them in exercising their discretion. It is a matter of common sense that such decisions should remain within their ambit, and not the courts.

Judges:

Otton LJ

Citations:

Times 16-Sep-1998

Statutes:

Housing Act 1985 202 204

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Regina v Hillingdon London Borough Council Ex parte Puhlhofer HL 2-Jan-1986
Not Homeless Even if Accomodation Inadequate
The applicants, a married couple, lived with a young child and later also a baby in one room of a guest house. They were given breakfast but had no cooking or washing facilities. They succeeded on a judicial review of the housing authority’s . .

Cited by:

Cited – Regina v Brighton and Hove Council ex parte Nacion (2) CA 1-Feb-1999
The applicant sought review of a decision not to offer him temporary accomodation pending an appeal following a review of a refusal to offer him emergency accomodation. He had become homeless as a result of imprisonment.
Held: The section gave . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.77735

An absolute possession order had been made against the statutory tenant, but, on later application to suspend, vary or discharge this order under section 4 of the 1923 Act, the statutory tenant obtained a further order postponing the date for possession by 28 days on condition that the tenant pay the arrears within that period. The order further provided (‘proleptically’) that ‘on such payment the order for possession shall be discharged’. The landlord challenged the court’s jurisdiction to convert an absolute order into a conditional order for possession.
Held: The provision in the 1923 Act could be seen as a ‘proleptic’ exercise of the power of discharge which the statutory wording provides. A further, separate application by the tenant after compliance with the conditions was therefore unnecessary. ‘As a matter of English, at first sight it might be said with force that it is only when the conditions have in fact been complied with that [the] power [to discharge or rescind] arises, and may be invoked’,
Lord Evershed MR said: ‘The last two lines of the subsection are: ‘and if such conditions are complied with, the court may, if it thinks fit, discharge any such order’. As a matter of English, at first sight it might be said with force that it is only when the conditions have been in fact complied with that that power arises, and may be invoked. In the present case it will be recalled that the judge combined all the operations into one order’.
Romer LJ explained that section 4(2) showed that the court could suspend execution or postpone the date for possession on terms ‘and that, if those terms are complied with, then the court may discharge or rescind the original absolute order’ and ‘the county court judge made in the present case . . [a] compendious form of order directing that on fulfilment of conditions, the original order should be discharged, instead of making an order imposing conditions, and then waiting to see if the conditions had been performed, and, if they had been performed, then making another order. I agree with the Master of the Rolls in thinking there is nothing wrong, or beyond the power of the court, in making an order in that compendious form.’ and ‘In my opinion, the meaning and effect of this judgment [the judgment for possession], when taken as a whole, and especially in view of the concluding paragraph, is that the defendant might remain on as tenant of the premises so long as he performed the conditions as to payment of the prescribed instalments in addition to the current rent; and that, on payment of the final instalment, the operation of the judgment would automatically cease. In other words, the judgment for possession was not intended to have an immediate effect, and would never indeed take effect at all provided that the conditions as to payment were fulfilled.’

Judges:

Lord Evershed MR, Romer LJ

Citations:

[1958] 1 QB 174

Statutes:

Rent and Mortgage Interest Restrictions Act 1923 4(2)

Citing:

Cited – Sherrin v Brand CA 1956
The landlord had obtained a possession order against his secure tenant. The order was suspended, but the landlord then failed to enforce the order after the date and when the tenant had failed to comply with the terms of the suspension. The tenant . .

Cited by:

Cited – Knowsley Housing Trust v White; Honeygan-Green v London Borough of Islington; Porter v Shepherds Bush Housing Association HL 10-Dec-2008
The House considered situations where a secure or assured tenancy had been made subject to a suspended possession order and where despite the tenant failing to comply with the conditions, he had been allowed to continue in occupation.
Held: . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.278697

Application for leave to appeal against homelessness decision – refused.

Judges:

Arden and Gage LJJ

Citations:

[2007] EWCA Civ 1169

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – London Borough of Wandsworth v Allison CA 15-Apr-2008
The claimant had applied for emergency housing, saying that he had suffered a deep vein thrombosis, and was vulnerable under the 1996 Act. The authority said that its finding that the VT would not put him at additional risk if homeless, was one of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.266978

The landlord claimed possession of a dwelling house let on a weekly tenancy, saying the tenant had been convicted of using the premises for an unlawful purpose. The tenant had been convicted of handling stolen goods by receiving them at the premises. He submitted that the section should be interpreted as applying only to convictions for offences which by definition involved the use of premises.
Held: The tenant’s suggestion was rejected.
Bankes LJ said: ‘And inasmuch as a strictly technical construction of section 4 of the Act of 1923 would exclude so many offences which would seem naturally to fall within the purview of the section, and because such a construction would deprive the words ‘or immoral’ of all force or effect, therefore I reject the argument that the section includes only offences in which user of the premises is an essential element. But I think it is necessary to show that the tenant has taken advantage of his tenancy of the premises and of the opportunity they afford for committing the offence.’
Scrutton LJ said: ‘The crime of receiving goods knowing them to have been stolen is a good instance of the difficulty raised by section 4. There is no crime, and consequently there can be no conviction, of using premises for receiving stolen goods, and yet premises may be used for the purpose of receiving stolen goods. The rest of the wording of section 4 suggests that such a user is within the contemplation of the section. Giving the case the best consideration I can, I come to the conclusion that the conviction need not be for using the premises for one or another immoral or illegal purpose, and that it is enough if there is a conviction of a crime which has been committed on the premises and for the purpose of committing which the premises have been used; but that it is not enough that the tenant has been convicted of a crime with which the premises have nothing to do beyond merely being the scene of its commission.’

Judges:

Bankes LJ, Scrutton LJ

Citations:

[1925] 1 KB 301

Statutes:

Rent Restrictions Act 1920 5(1)

Cited by:

Cited – Raglan Housing Association Ltd v Fairclough CA 1-Nov-2007
The tenant appealed an order for possession. He had been convicted of making indecent images of children. The defendant had moved his tenancy from the property in which the offences had been convicted to a neighbouring property. The landlord said . .
Cited – Abrahams v Wilson CA 1971
The tenant had allowed his premises to be used for the supply of Class B drugs over many months. Possession was sought under the provision of the Rent Act 1968.
Held: His appeal against a possession order succeeded.
Widgery LJ said: . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.260191

The landlord sought an order for possession of the property let under an assured tenancy. It offered as suitable alternative accomodation one of its other properties which was presently let under an assured shorthold tenancy as to which the contractual period had expired.
Held: The alternatve accomodation could only be held to be available if it was reasonable to expect the landlord to take the necessary steps to recover it. In assessing the reasonableness of te offer, the court could allow for the finacial consequences to the tenant.

Citations:

[2005] HLR 30

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Housing

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.260329

Provisions for transmission of secure tenancies operated only once.

Citations:

[1955] 1 WLR 495

Cited by:

Cited – Birmingham City Council v Walker HL 16-May-2007
The tenant was the son of the former tenant. The tenancy had originally been in the ownership of his father and his mother. The father died in 1969, when the tenancy not yet a secure tenancy. On the mother’s death, the council argued that the first . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.252482

Any factor which might affect the interests of either the landlord or tenant should be considered by the judge when assessing the reasonableness of ordering possession. In this case the court could allow for financial hardship arising from ill health of the parties

Citations:

[1924] 2 KB 173, [1924] All ER Rep 623, [1924] 93 LJKB 726

Statutes:

Rent Restriction Act 1920

Housing

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.246039

Where a tenant carries out his living activities in two properties, but exercises one function one property and another in the other, neiter tenancy will be a separate dwelling so as to provide protection.

Citations:

[1949] 2 All ER 432, [1949] 2 KB 564

Housing

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.245813

The tenant disputed the effectiveness of a notice to terminate his tenancy.
Held: The date set was incorrect, and the notice was invalid.

Citations:

[2000] 33 HLR 263, [2000] July Legal Action 29

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Housing

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.234719

The defendants had made the lives of a neighbour and his daughter (and his mentally ill mother, who sometimes visited them) ‘a completely misery’. The trial judge had received graphic evidence about the very serious nature of the defendants’ behaviour.
Held: The court decided that an immediate, not a suspended, possession order was appropriate, but expressed great concern about the difficulty of proving a breach of the order on the facts of that case.

Judges:

Kay and Waller LJJ

Citations:

(2001) 33 HLR 53

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Moat Housing Group-South Ltd v Harris and Another CA 16-Mar-2005
The defendant family was served without notice with an anti-social behaviour order ordering them to leave their home immediately, and making other very substantial restrictions. The evidence in large part related to other people entirely.
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 09 May 2022; Ref: scu.223664

Whether a single room in house had been let as a separate dwelling.

Citations:

[1949] LJR 165

Cited by:

Cited – Uratemp Ventures Limited v Collins HL 11-Oct-2001
Can a single room within a hotel comprise a separate dwelling within the 1988 Act and be subject to an assured tenancy?
Held: A single room can be a dwelling. Each case must be interpreted in its own light as a question of fact, but respecting . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 09 May 2022; Ref: scu.221448

The defendant had acted as the original tenant’s housekeeper in return for which he remitted her rent. They had never addressed each other by their Christian names and there was no question of an intimate personal relationship. After his death she sought the right to continue to occupy the premises.
Held: ‘Granted that ‘family’ is not limited to cases of a strict legal familial nexus, I cannot agree that it extends to a case such as this. It still requires, it seems to me, at least a broadly recognisable de facto familial nexus. This may be capable of being found and recognised as such by the ordinary man–where the link would be strictly familial had there been a marriage, or where the link is through adoption of a minor, de jure or de facto, or where the link is ‘step-‘, or where the link is ‘in-law’ or by marriage. But two strangers cannot, it seems to me, ever establish artificially for the purposes of this section a familial nexus by acting as brothers or as sisters, even if they call each other such and consider their relationship to be tantamount to that. Nor, in my view, can an adult man and woman who establish a platonic relationship establish a familial nexus by acting as a devoted brother and sister or father and daughter would act, even if they address each other as such and even if they refer to each other as such and regard their association as tantamount to such. Nor, in my view, would they indeed be recognised as familial links by the ordinary man.’

Judges:

Russell LJ

Citations:

[1964] 1 WLR 425

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Approved – Carega Properties SA (formerly Joram Developments Ltd) v Sharratt HL 1979
A widow aged 75 had developed a platonic relationship with a young man aged 24. He lived in her flat for nearly 20 years until she died. They treated themselves as aunt and nephew. The trial judge held that through their relationship this elderly . .
Cited – Fitzpatrick v Sterling Housing Association Ltd HL 28-Oct-1999
Same Sex Paartner to Inherit as Family Member
The claimant had lived with the original tenant in a stable and long standing homosexual relationship at the deceased’s flat. After the tenant’s death he sought a statutory tenancy as a spouse of the deceased. The Act had been extended to include as . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 09 May 2022; Ref: scu.215877

Once a warrant for possession has been executed, the statutory jurisdiction to re-instate a mortgagor is no longer exercisable. The court’s own inherent jurisdiction is exercisable only if either the judgment on which the warrant is based is set aside, or the execution of the warrant amounts to an abuse of process or oppression.

Citations:

[1996] 28 HLR 22

Citing:

Cited – Chater v Mortgage Agency Services Number Two Ltd CA 3-Apr-2003
The plaintiff mortgagee had had his warrant for possession executed. He now appealed against an order re-instating the mortgagor to possession.
Held: The wife had been unaware of the charge, and had not been made party to the proceedings. . .

Cited by:

Cited – Chater v Mortgage Agency Services Number Two Ltd CA 3-Apr-2003
The plaintiff mortgagee had had his warrant for possession executed. He now appealed against an order re-instating the mortgagor to possession.
Held: The wife had been unaware of the charge, and had not been made party to the proceedings. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 09 May 2022; Ref: scu.199712

The court was concerned with the ‘secure’ tenancy regime and the proper approach to the 1985 Act. The court took a ‘purposive approach’ in considering whether to allow the making of an amendment to a conditional possession order on the basis of new facts relating to the illegal activities of the tenant. The alternative would have been to compel the service of a new notice and the commencement of new proceedings without advantage or disadvantage to either party.

Citations:

[2002] EWCA Civ 1998, [2003] HLR 41

Statutes:

Housing Act 1985 83 85

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Knowsley Housing Trust v Revell; Helena Housing Ltd v Curtis CA 9-Apr-2003
The local authority landlord commenced proceedings for possession, but then transferred the properties to a registered social landlord. The tenants objected that the new landlords could not continue the proceedings.
Held: The transfer moved . .
Cited – Bristol City Council v Hassan and Glastonbury CA 23-May-2006
The council had obtained possession orders for two properties from secure tenants, but the orders were suspended for so long as rent arrears were being discharged. The judges had understood that a date must appear on the possession order.
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 08 May 2022; Ref: scu.181349

In order to claim housing support for increased mortgage interest arising on a move to a larger house, the test was whether the purpose was to provide extra sleeping accommodation for children of different sexes on reaching the age of ten. If that was not the sole purpose of the move, then additional benefit could not be claimed. The fact that the move may suit the family in other additional ways was not relevant.

Citations:

Gazette 08-Mar-2001, Times 02-Mar-2001

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Benefits, Housing

Updated: 08 May 2022; Ref: scu.88984

Judges:

Lady Justice Asplin

Citations:

[2020] EWCA Civ 1586

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Housing Act 1996 193(7)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Housing

Updated: 08 May 2022; Ref: scu.656370

The court considered the quality of residence required where a person claimed to be a statutory tenant in succession to her mother, who had been a protected tenant, because she had resided in the premises with her before she died. The appellant had visited frequently and then had moved in on a part-time basis to nurse her sick mother while retaining a home elsewhere.
Held: ‘residing with’ meant more than ‘living at’; a person claiming a statutory tenancy had to show that she had made her home in the premises.

Judges:

Swinton Thomas LJ

Citations:

(1986) 19 HLR 86

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Distinguished – Collier v Stoneman CA 1957
A grandchild and his wife shared a 2-bedroom flat with the grandmother tenant. There was communal living and eating and no question of a sub-tenancy.
Held: The claim to succession to the tenancy was upheld.
Sellers LJ said: ‘The . .

Cited by:

Cited – ZH and CN, Regina (on The Applications of) v London Boroughs of Newham and Lewisham SC 12-Nov-2014
The court was asked whether the 1977 Act required a local authorty to obtain a court order before taking possession of interim accommodation it provided to an apparently homeless person while it investigated whether it owed him or her a duty under . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 08 May 2022; Ref: scu.554545

It was not possible for a local authority to say for homelessness purposes that a tenant had ceased to occupy property which she had never moved into.

Citations:

[1982] 6 HLR 24

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Regina (on the application of) Awua v Brent London Borough Council HL 6-Jul-1995
Tower Hamlets, having determined the applicant to be homeless, in priority need and not intentionally homeless. After she occupied temporary accomodation she was offered an alternative being told it was the council’s policy only to make one such . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 08 May 2022; Ref: scu.443222

Judges:

Foskett J

Citations:

[2010] EWHC 1574 (QB)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Housing

Updated: 08 May 2022; Ref: scu.420048

‘swords with a little ingenuity can be beaten into shields’

Citations:

[1981] 1 WLR 863

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Mentioned – Knowsley Housing Trust v White; Honeygan-Green v London Borough of Islington; Porter v Shepherds Bush Housing Association HL 10-Dec-2008
The House considered situations where a secure or assured tenancy had been made subject to a suspended possession order and where despite the tenant failing to comply with the conditions, he had been allowed to continue in occupation.
Held: . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.278699

Judges:

Wilkie J

Citations:

[2006] EWHC 452 (Admin)

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Housing Act 1996 184

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Housing

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.239252

Citations:

[2009] EWHC 3240 (Admin)

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Housing Act 1996

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Housing

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.425532

The House set out the conditions for deciding whether rooms within a house were let as a separate dwelling. The time at which it has to be judged whether premises are entitled to protection is when the action is brought.
Lord Porter said that: ‘the rules of formal logic must not be applied . . with too great strictness’ to legislation conferring security of tenure on residential tenants.

Judges:

Lord Porter

Citations:

[1950] AC 401

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Uratemp Ventures Limited v Collins HL 11-Oct-2001
Can a single room within a hotel comprise a separate dwelling within the 1988 Act and be subject to an assured tenancy?
Held: A single room can be a dwelling. Each case must be interpreted in its own light as a question of fact, but respecting . .
Cited – Knowsley Housing Trust v White; Honeygan-Green v London Borough of Islington; Porter v Shepherds Bush Housing Association HL 10-Dec-2008
The House considered situations where a secure or assured tenancy had been made subject to a suspended possession order and where despite the tenant failing to comply with the conditions, he had been allowed to continue in occupation.
Held: . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.221450

The applicant was an epileptic who required careful medical supervision, but the local authority did not regard her as vulnerable for housing purposes.
Held: Review was declined. The matter was one for the authority exercising its discretion. The applicant’s ability to find accomodation on her own was decisive: ‘Vulnerable in my judgment means vulnerable in the housing market. There is no indication here of difficulty in finding accommodation or of maintaining the need for special accommodation. There is not one word of evidence upon those matters.’

Judges:

Mann J

Citations:

[1989] 20 HLR 153

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Regina v Hillingdon London Borough Council Ex parte Puhlhofer HL 2-Jan-1986
Not Homeless Even if Accomodation Inadequate
The applicants, a married couple, lived with a young child and later also a baby in one room of a guest house. They were given breakfast but had no cooking or washing facilities. They succeeded on a judicial review of the housing authority’s . .

Cited by:

Cited – Regina v London Borough of Camden ex parte Pereira CA 20-May-1998
When considering whether a person was vulnerable so as to be treated more favourably in applying for rehousing: ‘The Council should consider such application afresh applying the statutory criterion: The Ortiz test should not be used; the dictum of . .
Cited – Ortiz v City of Westminster CA 1994
The applicant was a twenty four year old woman with a history of drug addiction and alcoholism. There was in fact suitable hostel accommodation available which had been offered to the applicant at the relevant time and it was hard to see why she . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.200292

Bowen LJ said: ‘I would much rather rest on the general principle that the Court can and will interfere whenever there is a vexation and oppression to prevent the administration of justice being perverted for an unjust end. I would rather do that than attempt to define what vexation and oppression mean; they must vary with the circumstances of each case.’

Judges:

Bowen LJ

Citations:

[1882] 22 Ch 397

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Mayor and Burgesses of London Borough of Camden v Akanni CA 31-Jan-1997
The context in which the court is willing in a rare, but appropriate, case to intervene to nullify the execution of a warrant for possession goes back to the principles set out in McHenry v Lewis. . .
Cited – Jephson Homes Housing Association v Moisejevs and Another CA 1-Nov-2000
A possession warrant, properly issued and executed in ignorance of a payment into court by the tenant was not an abuse of process. The tenant had paid funds into court in the mistaken belief that this would be effective to set aside the warrant. She . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.187047

The burden when determining intentional homelessness is upon the local authority to be satisfied that the applicant became homeless intentionally before it can reach a conclusion that he was so homeless; if its inquiries lead to doubt or uncertainty, the issue must be resolved in the applicant’s favour.

Citations:

(1981) 1 HLR 128

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Regina v Gravesham Borough Council ex parte Winchester 1986
The court considered the nature of the assessment required of a housing auithority when application was made by a person claiming to be homeless. Simon Brown J said: ‘The duty to make necessary inquiries is not a duty to make all inquiries in fact . .
Cited – Osei v London Borough of Southwark CA 25-Jul-2007
. .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.536774

The court was concerned with the implied statutory obligations of repair on the landlord: ‘It is common ground that the door and frame of the flat were part of the structure and exterior of the flat within the meaning of the implied statutory covenant. It is also common ground that the effect of this implied obligation is to impose on the landlord the obligation to effect any necessary repair within a reasonable time after receiving notice of the want of repair: [Calabar] The plaintiff therefore surmounts the first of the three hurdles which I have mentioned.’

Judges:

Slade, Balcombe, Stocker LJJ

Citations:

[1988] 1 EGLR 47

Statutes:

Housing Act 1961 32

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Calabar Properties Ltd v Stitcher CA 1983
The landlord had failed in his duty to repair. One tenant’s health suffered because of the damp, and they had to rent other premises.
Held: The landlord has only a reasonable time to effect repairs once he has been given notice of the need for . .

Cited by:

Cited – Andrews and Another v Brewer and Another CA 17-Feb-1997
Tenants challenged an order for possession, saying the form of notice was defective. The date specified in the notice was clearly a clerical error. It provided that the tenancy would commence on 29 May 1993 and end on 28 May 1993, on the face of it, . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.187737

The court described the purpose of the scheme for determining fair rents.

Judges:

Sir Thomas Bingham MR

Citations:

(1993) 25 HLR 487

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Heffernan, Regina (on the Application of) v The Rent Service HL 30-Jul-2008
The appellant challenged the decision of the respondent to redetermine the rents for two properties, saying that the officer had wrongly interpreted the meaning of locality when looking for comparable properties.
Held: The determinations were . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 05 May 2022; Ref: scu.276207

The applicant, in flight from domestic violence, had gone with her two young children, to stay in a women’s refuge. The local authority argued that she was not homeless because she had accommodation available to her in the refuge.
Held: The application for judicial review succeeded. The court approved the conclusion of a county court judge in another case that ‘women living in refuges were still homeless’ under the terms of the 1977 Act. Hodgson J did not regard a crisis refuge as accommodation within the meaning of the 1977 Act. It was essential that women who had gone to refuges were still seen as homeless. Otherwise the refuges would have to give them 28 days notice when they came in so that they would be under threat of homelessness (under s 1(3) of the 1977 Act).

Judges:

Hodgson J

Citations:

(1982) 2 HLR 48

Statutes:

Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977

Citing:

Cited – Din (Taj) v Wandsworth London Borough Council HL 26-Nov-1981
The appellants had applied for emergency housing as homeless persons, anticipating loss of their secure accomodation after falling into arrears. The Council reject their application, but a County Court quashed that decision. The Court of Appeal . .

Cited by:

Cited – Manchester City Council v Moran and Another; Richards v Ipswich Borough Council CA 17-Apr-2008
The two applicants had occupied a women’s refuge. They appealed against a refusal to consider them as homeless when they acted in such a way as to be evicted from the refuge, saying that the refuge did not constitute ‘accommodation . . which it . .
Cited – Birmingham City Council v Ali and Others; Moran v Manchester City Council HL 1-Jul-2009
Homelessness Status Requires LA Action
The House considered appeals challenging whether local authorities who gave unacceptable housing to the homeless had satisfied their obligations to them as homeless people. What was meant by the phrase ‘accommodation which it would be reasonable for . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 05 May 2022; Ref: scu.266979

The plaintiffs had fallen behind with their rent, which resulted ultimately in an order for possession. The council found that the plaintiffs were threatened with homelessness intentionally.
Held: In relation to the argument that a person is not intentionally homeless unless he intended to become homeless or at any rate appreciated that homelessness would result from his action, it was held that ‘deliberately’ governs only the act or omission, not the homelessness. If a person deliberately does an act the reasonable result of which is his eviction, and the act is in fact the cause of his eviction, then he becomes homeless intentionally even though he did not appreciate that it would be the cause. Similarly, if a person deliberately does an act and eviction is the likely result of what he deliberately does, then he becomes threatened with homelessness intentionally, even though he may not have appreciated that it would be the likely result.

Judges:

Judge Goodall

Citations:

[1982] 1 All ER 726

Statutes:

Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977 17

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Regina v London Borough of Hounslow ex parte R Admn 19-Feb-1997
The Applicant was 65 years old, with a history of criminal offences including serious sexual assaults on children. On release from prison, he presented himself as homeless. After his imprisonment, he had realised that he would be unable to keep up . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 05 May 2022; Ref: scu.181070

Judges:

Turner J

Citations:

[1997] EWHC Admin 835, (1998) 30 HLR 1082

Statutes:

Housing Act 1985

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Mohamed v Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council HL 1-Nov-2001
Mrs M came to England in 1994 living first in Ealing and then Hammersmith. Mr M came later and lived elsewhere in Hammersmith. Hammersmith gave them jointly temporary accommodation, first in a hotel and then in a flat. They then applied under . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 05 May 2022; Ref: scu.137780

Breach of duty for homeless officer to comment on applicants behaviour.

Citations:

Times 20-Jul-1993

Statutes:

Housing Homeless Persons Act 1977

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Housing

Updated: 05 May 2022; Ref: scu.88201

Homelessness interview was valid though the interviewer knew of housing shortage.

Citations:

Times 08-Dec-1994

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – Regina v Tower Hamlets London Borough Council ex parte Khatun QBD 1-Oct-1993
An interview to assess a person’s homelessness staus was ultra vires if it was conducted unsympathetically. . .

Cited by:

Appealed to – Regina v Tower Hamlets London Borough Council ex parte Khatun QBD 1-Oct-1993
An interview to assess a person’s homelessness staus was ultra vires if it was conducted unsympathetically. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 05 May 2022; Ref: scu.88204

A Landlord’s liability to carry out a repair to the tenanted property under the 1985 Act does not arise unless the tenant puts the landlord on notice of the disrepair. The tenant in such cases is under a duty to mitigate his losses.

Citations:

(1988) 20 HLR 393

Statutes:

Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 11

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Housing

Updated: 04 May 2022; Ref: scu.246048

In considering whether a secure tenancy was lost by the tenant abandoning his residence there, the court set out the applicable principles. Where absence is more prolonged than is to be explained by holiday or ordinary business reasons and is unintermittent, the onus lies on the absent person to establish an intention to return. An inward intention is insufficient; it must be accompanied by some outward sign of the person’s intention. The person must show that there is a real possibility that the intention to return will be fulfilled within a reasonable time, and the person’s case can prevail even though he has another home or residence but the court will look with particular care at two-home cases.

Citations:

(1988) 20 HLR 108

Statutes:

Housing Act 1985

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Steven We Ping Wall v Sheffield City Council CA 23-Mar-2006
The appellant had been fostered by the deceased, and on her death continued to live in her house held under a secure tenancy of the respondent. The council sought possession, saying that he was not a member of the deceased’s family within section . .
Cited – Camden London Borough Council v Goldenberg and Another CA 1-Apr-1996
The appellant had lived for a number of years with his grandmother; had then married; had thereupon moved with his bride for three months into a house owned by friends who were abroad; had, throughout that time, left the bulk of his belongings at . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 04 May 2022; Ref: scu.241563

The claimant (defending proceedings for possession by the local authority) had lived with the deceased secure tenant in a lesbian relationship for some years and was so living at the date of her death. She sought to defend her occupation saying she qualified as a spouse of the deceased.
Held: The defence failed: ‘I agree that the expression ‘living together as husband and wife’ . . is not apt to include a homosexual relationship. The essential characteristic of living together as husband and wife, in my judgment, is that there should be a man and a woman . . ‘ (Ewbank J) The natural English meaning of the words ‘wife or husband’ was gender-specific, and thus, purely as a matter of language, excluded same-sex relationships.

Judges:

Watkins LJ, Ewbank J

Citations:

(1985) 17 HLR 205

Statutes:

Housing Act 1980 50

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Michalak v London Borough of Wandsworth CA 6-Mar-2002
The appellant had occupied for a long time a room in a house let by the authority. After the death of the tenant, the appellant sought, but was refused, a statutory tenancy. He claimed to be a member of the tenant’s family, and that the list of . .
Approved – Fitzpatrick v Sterling Housing Association Ltd HL 28-Oct-1999
Same Sex Paartner to Inherit as Family Member
The claimant had lived with the original tenant in a stable and long standing homosexual relationship at the deceased’s flat. After the tenant’s death he sought a statutory tenancy as a spouse of the deceased. The Act had been extended to include as . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 04 May 2022; Ref: scu.179866

Whether the appellant was intentionally homeless within the meaning of section 191 of the Housing Act 1996

Judges:

Lord Justice Lewis

Citations:

[2020] EWCA Civ 1587

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Housing Act 1996 191

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Housing

Updated: 04 May 2022; Ref: scu.656356

The applicant and her child had been accepted to be in emergency housing need, and had been given temporary bedsit accomodation in a facility they owned and managed. She had a sink, cooker and fridge, and shared bathroom and toilet facilities and a communal sitting room. She had a licence only, and no tenancy. She was given a larger room, but then her behaviour led to complaints, and her licence was terminated and a possession order granted. On re-applying for homeless provision, the authority said that she was intentionally homless by virtue of her behaviour. As a preliminary point it was argued for her that she had not been in secure or settled accomodation so as to lose her original homeless status.
Held: The authority could discharge its section 4(5) duties in stages. A homeless applicant would only lose that status on acquisition of ‘settled accomodation’. The term settled is a word of convenience rather then ahaving a particular statutory meaning. Whether one has been acquired is a question of fact and degree in the particular circumstances. In these circumstances was in settled accommodation. Upon losing that accomodation she therefore fell to be treated as unintentionally homeless.

Judges:

Mann J

Citations:

(1985) 18 HLR 51

Statutes:

Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977 4(5)

Cited by:

Cited – Regina (on the application of) Awua v Brent London Borough Council HL 6-Jul-1995
Tower Hamlets, having determined the applicant to be homeless, in priority need and not intentionally homeless. After she occupied temporary accomodation she was offered an alternative being told it was the council’s policy only to make one such . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 04 May 2022; Ref: scu.443224

Citations:

(1996) 29 HLR 202

Statutes:

Housing Act 1988 34(1)(b)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Truro Diocesan Board of Finance Ltd v Foley CA 22-Oct-2008
The tenant appealed against a decision that a deed he had entered into with the claimant did not operate to give him the status of a protected or statutory tenancy.
Held: The tenant had had a full Rent Act tenancy. The Board claimed . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 02 May 2022; Ref: scu.296310

MacKinnon LJ described the effect of the several attempts to consolidate and amend the laws protecting residential tenants as ‘that chaos of verbal darkness.’

Judges:

MacKinnon LJ

Citations:

[1944] KB 734

Cited by:

Cited – Knowsley Housing Trust v White; Honeygan-Green v London Borough of Islington; Porter v Shepherds Bush Housing Association HL 10-Dec-2008
The House considered situations where a secure or assured tenancy had been made subject to a suspended possession order and where despite the tenant failing to comply with the conditions, he had been allowed to continue in occupation.
Held: . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 02 May 2022; Ref: scu.278698

A gypsy applied for housing with the respondent authority, but did not wish to live in a house. They suggested that if the claimants had an aversion to accommodation in bricks and mortar then the offer of such accommodation could not amount to the offer of suitable alternative accommodation.
Held: The submission was rejected. An offer of bricks and mortar was capable of being suitable alternative accommodation; but the court acknowledged that the requirement to respect the applicant’s private and family life and home carried a positive obligation on the part of the public authority. The question therefore was whether the local authority had in fact given special consideration to the applicant as a gypsy and, if so, whether that consideration was lawful and adequate. The suggestion that the current English guidance that gypsies should be considered in the same way as any other applicant did not accord with the Strasbourg jurisprudence precisely because the local authority had to give special consideration to the applicant as a gypsy.

Judges:

Newman J

Citations:

[2003] EWCA 42 Admin

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Approved – Codona v Mid-Bedfordshire District Council CA 15-Jul-2004
A homeless gypsy caravan dweller applied for housing. The authority offered temporary bed and breakfast accomodation. She complained that she had an aversion to living in bricks and mortar.
Held: The authority had discharged its function. The . .
Cited – Lee v Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council CA 16-Jul-2008
The applicant, a gypsy had been living for some years on an illegal site with her children. The council closed the site down and she sought assistance as a homeless person. The council accepted her priority need, but she refused the property offered . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 01 May 2022; Ref: scu.276417

McCullough J considered whether it was reasonable to expect the applicant to continue to live in overcrowded accomodation: ‘That anyone should regard as reasonable that a family of that size should live in one room 10 ft x 12 ft in size, or thereabouts, is something which I find astonishing. However, the matter has to be seen in the light of s 17(4) which requires that reasonableness must take account of the general circumstances prevailing in relation to housing in the area. No evidence has been placed before me that accommodation in the area of the Westminster City Council is so desperately short that it is reasonable to accept overcrowding of this degree. In the absence of such evidence I am driven to the conclusion that this question could not properly have been determined against the applicant.’

Judges:

McCullough J

Citations:

[1983] 11 HLR 83

Cited by:

Cited – Harouki v Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea CA 17-Oct-2007
The applicant sought housing as a homeles person. Her present accommodation for herself, her husband and five children was so overcrowded that continued occupation was a criminal offence. She appealed a finding that it was reasonable to continue . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 01 May 2022; Ref: scu.260132

A statutory tenancy is not an estate in land but a mere ‘personal right of occupation’ and is unassignable.

Judges:

Lord Greene MR

Citations:

[1942] 2 KB 288

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Birmingham City Council v Walker HL 16-May-2007
The tenant was the son of the former tenant. The tenancy had originally been in the ownership of his father and his mother. The father died in 1969, when the tenancy not yet a secure tenancy. On the mother’s death, the council argued that the first . .
Cited – Sheffield City Council v Wall (Personal Representatives of) and Others CA 30-Jul-2010
The claimant had been a foster son and was now the administrator of the estate of the deceased tenant. He sought to occupy the property as a successor under the 1985 Act. He said that as a former foster child, he had become a member of the . .
Cited – Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council v Hickin CA 27-Jul-2010
The claimant sought to succeed to a secure tenancy. She had lived with her mother, a joint tenant, but who had died before her father who had not lived at the house for many years and who had now died. The council said that the tenancy had become . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 01 May 2022; Ref: scu.252483

The college leased and let out a large house as sub-lettings for students. Each student paid a proportion of the rent to the college. Each lease made it clear that it was intended to be a house in multiple occupation, and that it was not let as a separate dwelling. The college aimed to pass on the benefit of the rent registration to the students.
Held: The house had not been let as a separate dwelling and the college was not a protected tenant. The word dwelling included all the major activities of life, particularly sleeping, cooking and feeding and so a room which was devoid of cooking and a water supply and was unfurnished and not slept in was not a dwelling and the tenancy was not protected.

Citations:

[1980] 1 WLR 66, [1979] 3 All ER 250

Housing

Updated: 01 May 2022; Ref: scu.245809

The applicant challenged a referral of her application for housing as a homeless person by Hammersmith back to Kirklees from where she had moved. She had a cousin in Hammersmith.
Held: Her application for judical review failed. Tucker J: ‘Section 61(1) of the Housing Act provides that a local connection may be established by any of four criteria. One of these at (c) is that because of family associations. But [counsel] does not pursue that suggestion. Instead he relies on (d), that there are in this case other special circumstances. The Homelessness Code of Guidance for Local Authorities suggests that this may be particularly relevant in dealing with households returning from abroad, or discharged from HM Forces who do not conform to other criteria. In my opinion family associations do not extend beyond parents, adult children, or brothers and sisters. First cousins once removed (or cousins of any description) cannot provide the necessary connection. And I agree with the decision of the Deputy High Court Judge in R v Slough B C ex p Khan (1995) 27 HLR 492, that if a family association is too weak to create a local connection it can hardly amount to a special circumstance.’

Judges:

Tucker J

Citations:

(1996) 28 HLR 897

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Regina v Slough Borough Council Ex Parte Khan and Another QBD 30-Jan-1995
A Local Authority had to consider all possible local connections before passing an applicant for housing under the Act to another other Local Authority for assistance. . .

Cited by:

Appeal from – Regina v Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council, ex parte Avdic CA 2-Jan-1996
A refugee from Bosnia moved from Kirklees to London, where she applied for accomodation as being homeless. Hammersmith accepted that she was owed a duty, but referred her back to Kirklees in September. Her solicitors then sent in more material which . .
Cited – Ozbek v Ispwich Borough Council CA 4-May-2006
The claimant applied to be housed as a homeless person. The authority sought to refer him to a different authority under s198. As an asylum seeker, he had been given assistance both in Portsmouth and Southampton before coming to Ipswich. He said . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 01 May 2022; Ref: scu.242517

The appellant challenged the refusal of an adjournment of the hearing of a challenge to the setting of a fair rent for property occupied by him under a secure tenancy. There had been several adjournments.
Held: The application failed. The applicant had sought to avoid the hearing of his appeal. The rules placed a burden on the tribunal to deal with matters with expedition, and gave it discretions to achieve this, and: ‘The Committee . . were entirely right and indeed obligated in the circumstances, even taking the appellant’s evidence, to get on and decide the matter. ‘

Judges:

Ousely J

Citations:

[2006] EWHC 884 (Admin)

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Rent Assessment Committees (England and Wales) Regulations 1971

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Housing

Updated: 01 May 2022; Ref: scu.241447

The House considered the meaning of the word in the phrase ‘substantial proportion of the whole rent’.
Held: In accordance with ‘one of its primary meanings’; it was to be read as ‘equivalent to considerable, solid or big’. The concept was imprecise: ‘Aristotle long ago pointed out that the degree of precision that is attainable depends on the subject matter.’

Judges:

Viscount Simon

Citations:

[1948] AC 291

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Shephard and others v Turner and Another CA 23-Jan-2006
The appellants challenged the removal of a restrictive covenant on a neighbour’s house restricting further building on the land to allow further house in the garden. It was in a small close of houses all erected, and the covenant imposed, in 1952. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 01 May 2022; Ref: scu.238672

Citations:

(1985) 17 HLR 572

Cited by:

Cited – Vella v London Borough of Lambeth Admn 14-Nov-2005
The claimant sought judicial review of the decision to serve an abatement notice in respect of premises where the normal noise incidents of living were heard in neighbouring flats, which notices were to be abated by noise insulation.
Held: The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 30 April 2022; Ref: scu.235385

The court considered the nature of the duty to make inquiries imposed on a local authority faced with a homelessness application: ‘The duty to make necessary inquiries is not a duty to make all inquiries in fact necessary before the truth can be ascertained. A council which makes numerous inquiries can in my judgment only be attacked for failing to making one more if it failed to make an inquiry which no reasonable council could have failed to regard as necessary.’

Judges:

Schiemann J

Citations:

(1989) 21 HLR 301

Statutes:

Housing Act 1985

Cited by:

Cited – Regina v Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea ex p Bayani 1990
The court set out authoritative guidance as to the scope of a reviewing court’s power to interfere on the ground of the insufficiency of inquiry by a local authority to whom a homelessness application had been made. Neill LJ said: ‘(1) The duty to . .
Cited – Cramp v Hastings Borough Council CA 29-Jul-2005
Cases challenged successful appeals by applicants for housing for homelessness, where a county court had ordered a second review of the application. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 30 April 2022; Ref: scu.229851

The court considered the relationship between statutory provisions and the terms of a tenancy agreement.
Held: Brandon LJ said: ‘In the various Housing and rent Acts the legislature did not seek to interfere with the common law principles on which contractual tenancies, whether periodic or for a term certain, could be brought to an end. In the case of periodic tenancies the legislature left landlords free to bring them to an end by the service and expiry of valid notices to quit. In the case of tenancies for a term certain, the legislature left such tenancies to come to an end automatically by effluxion of time. What the legislature did, however, in order to protect the person who had been a contractual tenant before his contractual tenancy came to an end, was to create a new relationship between the tenant and his former contractual landlord, which Scrutton LJ described . . . in Remon v City of London Real Property Co Ltd [1921] 1 KB 49,58, as a ‘statutory tenancy’, the parties to which were the former contractual tenant, from then on described as a ‘statutory tenant’, and the former contractual landlord or his successor in title. . . .’ but ‘By contrast, in the Act of 1980 the legislature went about the matter in quite a different way. It abolished altogether the common law principles on which contractual tenancies, both periodic and for a term certain, could be brought or come to an end. It did this by providing, first, that, on the expiry of a contractual tenancy for a term certain, there should come into existence a periodic tenancy in its place, unless a further contractual tenancy for a term certain should be granted: section 29(1) and (2) [now section 86 of the 1985 Act]; and, secondly, that a periodic tenancy, whether having that character originally, or coming into being on the expiry of a term certain, should not be capable of being brought to an end by a landlord except by the latter obtaining an order of the court for possession: section 32(1), or, in cases where provisions for re-entry or forfeiture are relied on, an order terminating the secure tenancy: section 32(2).’
‘In Remon’s case the Court of Appeal felt bound to give strained and unnatural meanings to perfectly ordinary words, such as ‘tenant’, ‘tenancy’ and ‘let’. It did so for one reason and one reason only, namely that unless those words were given strained and unnatural meanings, the manifest purpose of the Act of 1920 – to protect from eviction persons whose contractual tenancies had been brought or come to an end – would be defeated. In the three cases with which these appeals are concerned, I do not see any compelling reason why the court should follow its predecessor in Remon’s case by giving a strained and unnatural meaning to the expression ‘let under a secure tenancy’ as used in sections 33(1) and 34(1) of the Act of 1980. The ordinary and natural meaning of the expression is ‘let under a secure tenancy at the date to which each subsection relates’, that is to say the date of commencement of an action for possession, in the case of section 33(1), and the date of deciding whether an order for possession should be made in such an action in the case of section 34(1).’

Judges:

Brandon LJ

Citations:

[1981] 1 WLR 650

Statutes:

Housing Act 1980 32 33 34

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Explained – Remon v City of London Real Property Co Ltd CA 1921
The court was asked whether the plaintiff, a tenant of rooms to which (once enacted) the Act of 1920 applied and who had been excluded from possession by the landlord’s re-entry on the day that the Act came into force following service of a notice . .

Cited by:

Cited – North British Housing Association Ltd v Sheridan CA 29-Jul-1999
The respondent appealed against an order for possession made on the grounds that he had been convicted of breach of an order under the 1997 Act in harassing his daughter who lived nearby the premises. The tenant argued that the agreement had . .
Cited – Banjo v London Borough of Brent CA 17-Mar-2005
The tenant had occupied the premises under a long lease which expired by effluxion of time. The landlord failed to take any steps to retake possession, and the tenant continued as a tenant at will, paying no rent. The landlord eventually issued . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing

Updated: 30 April 2022; Ref: scu.221433