The claimant challenged the Act as being an unlawful discrimination.
Held: The 1985 Act in allowing only one succession to a secure tenancy found a proper balance between the needs of the tenant’s family and the duty of a local housing authority to manage its housing stock in the interests of the locality and of those in greatest need: ‘Every secure tenant, whether sole or joint, is limited to one assignment or other transmission of the secure tenancy. The rule limiting succession to one transmission applies to all secure tenants equally.’
In proceedings between private parties the court does not act incompatibly with article 8 by making or enforcing a possession order without considering questions of proportionality, and it makes no difference that the landlord is a public authority.
Moses J said: ‘It is plain that Parliament had to strike a balance between security of tenure and the wider need for systematic allocation of the local authority’s housing resources in circumstances where those housing resources are not unlimited. The striking of such a balance is pre-eminently a matter of policy for the legislature. The court should respect the legislative judgment as to what is in the general interest unless that judgment was manifestly without reasonable foundation.’
Judges:
Moses J
Citations:
[2003] EWHC 794, [2003] HLR 1028
Statutes:
Housing Act 1985 87, European Convention on Human Rights 8
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
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 . .
Approved – 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 . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Housing, Human Rights
Updated: 15 July 2022; Ref: scu.414887