The tenant was guilty of nuisance, but her misbehaviour was attributable to her psychotic state – her ‘disability’ within the 1995 Act.
Held: Though a very pertinent factor to be taken into account may be a housing authority’s obligations to other tenants on a housing estate and the interests of those other tenants, though the situation may be affected by the Act when the tenant suffers some mental impairment: ‘on the facts of the present case, the issue is one of fact: whether the breach of the tenancy terms was caused by the disability’. Since the evidence showed that the tenant ‘was unable [due to her disability] to prevent herself from behaving in [the objectionable] manner’ the 1995 Act was engaged, and the landlord had to establish sufficient justification to satisfy section 24(1)(b) of that Act if an order for possession was to be made. The 1995 Act did not bar all evictions but ‘only those which were not justified in the specific circumstances set out in section 24 and it ‘furnishes its own code for justified eviction which requires a higher threshold’, a threshold higher than that in the Housing Act 1988.
Judges:
David Steel J
Citations:
[2003] HLR 905, [2003] EWHC 574 (QB)
Statutes:
Housing Act 1988, Disability Discrimination Act 1995
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Clark v TDG Limited (Trading As Novacold) CA 25-Mar-1999
The applicant had soft tissue injuries around the spine as a consequence of a back injury at work. He was absent from work for a long time as a result of his injuries, and he was eventually dismissed when his medical advisers could provide no clear . .
Cited by:
Cited – Knowsley Housing Trust v McMullen CA 9-May-2006
The defendant tenant appealed an order for possession of her flat. She was disabled and living with her 19 year old son. He had been made subject to an anti-social behaviour order. The court had found that she could have required him to leave. The . .
Cited – London Borough of Lewisham v Malcolm and Disability Rights Commission CA 25-Jul-2007
The court was asked, whether asked to grant possession against a disabled tenant where the grounds for possession were mandatory. The defendant was a secure tenant with a history of psychiatric disability. He had set out to buy his flat, but the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Housing, Discrimination
Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.234717