(High Court of Ireland) The defendant’s son claimed that he sought to succeed to a tenancy on his mother’s death. The council rejected the claim and served him with proceedings under Section 62 of the Housing Act 1966 to recover possession. The district judge had found that save for a period when he resided with his partner, he had resided with his mother and regarded the dwelling as his permanent residence.
Held: The absence of the procedures led to the conclusion that Section 62 violated the son’s Article 8 rights because of the lack of procedural safeguards. There was a breach of Article 6 in the process carried out internally by the council. Unlike McCann, there was a determination of the son’s rights by the council insofar as it made the decision that he was not entitled to succeed to the tenancy. There was no appeal for this decision within the decision making structures of the council and the issue could not be opened up again in the Section 62 proceedings. The restricted application of Article 6, as evidenced in McCann, was to be contrasted with the wide-reaching implicit guarantee of fair procedures in decision making by public bodies under the Irish constitution.
Judges:
O’Neill J
Citations:
[2008] IEHC 354
Links:
Statutes:
European Convention on Human Rights 6
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – McCann v The United Kingdom ECHR 13-May-2008
The applicant and his wife were secure joint tenants of a house of a local authority under section 82. Their marriage broke down, and the applicant’s wife moved out of the house with the two children of the marriage. She returned after obtaining a . .
Cited by:
Cited – Coombes, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and Another Admn 8-Mar-2010
The landlord council brought proceedings for possession. The tenant (C) had remained in possession after his mother’s death, but enjoyed no second statutory succession. He had lived there since 1954 when he was six. C sought a declaration of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
European, Housing, human Rights
Updated: 07 December 2022; Ref: scu.414889
