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 the intent of the legislation. Social changes now mean that larger numbers of people live alone, and many people will not cook. A room without cooking facilities, and with shared bathroom facilities, may be a separate dwelling. A ‘dwelling’ under the section was a place where a person lived, and which he treated as his home. The place in question is that where a person ‘lives and to which he returns and which forms the centre of his existence’, since ‘home’ is not a legal term of art and article 8 is not directed to the protection of property interests or contractual rights.
Lord Irvine of Lairg LC said: ”Dwelling’ is not a term of art, but a familiar word in the English language, which in my judgment in this context connotes a place where one lives, regarding and treating it as home.’
Lord Millett said: ‘In both ordinary and literary usage, residential accommodation is ‘a dwelling’ if it is the occupier’s home . . But his home is not the less his home because he does not cook there but prefers to eat out or bring in ready-cooked meals.’
Lord Irvine of Lairg LC, Lord Bingham of Cornhill Lord Steyn Lord Hobhouse of Wood-borough Lord Millett
Times 18-Oct-2001, Gazette 25-Oct-2001, [2001] UKHL 43, [2002] 1 AC 301, [2002] 1 All ER 46, [2001] 3 WLR 806, [2001] All ER (D) 154, [2002] RVR 162, [2002] L and TR 15, [2002] 1 P and CR DG15, [2001] 3 EGLR 93, [2001] Hous LR 133
House of Lords, Bailii
Housing Act 1988 1, European Convention on Human Rights 8
England and Wales
Citing:
Explained – Parkins v City of Westminster CA 20-Nov-1997
The council granted what it called a licence to the applicant. He was one of their employee teachers, and they wanted to supply accomodation. They appealed refusal of possession on the basis that he had become a secure tenant under the Act. It had . .
Cited – Curl v Angelo CA 1948
Two rooms were let to the proprietor of an adjoining hotel as additional accommodation for the hotel. They were used mainly for guests but occasionally for the hotel tenant’s family or staff. One such claimed security of tenure.
Held: The . .
Cited – Westminster City Council v Clarke HL 29-Apr-1992
An occupant of a hostel for homeless and vulnerable single men had only a licence to occupy the room, and was not a tenant. There was a resident warden and a team of support workers. The intention was that residents should use the hostel as a . .
Cited – Monks v Dykes 1839
The defendant pleaded in answer to a charge of assault that he was being disturbed in his possession of land.
Held: It was not suficient to sustan the plea by proof that the defendant was a lodger occupying only one room in a house of which . .
Appeal from – Uratemp Ventures Ltd v Collins, Same v Carell CA 10-Dec-1999
The presence of cooking facilities is an essential element in deciding whether premises could constitute a dwelling. Accordingly, a room in a hotel without such facilities could not be subject to an assured tenancy. A room with cooking facilities . .
Cited – Cole v Harris 1945
The court was aksed whether a single room was let as a separate dwelling.
Held: Sharing of the use of a bathroom or toilet need not prevent a tenancy being protected. . .
Cited – Marsh Ltd v Cooper 1969
Whether premises were let as a separate dwelling. . .
Cited – Neale v Del Soto CA 1945
A letting of two of a number of rooms in a property together with joint use with the landlord of the kitchen, bathroom, lavatory and conservatory was not a letting of the two rooms as a separate dwelling, but a sharing of the property. The letting . .
Cited – Winters v Dance 1949
Whether a single room in house had been let as a separate dwelling. . .
Cited – Goodrich v Paisner HL 1956
By a tenancy agreement, the landlord of a dwelling house let to the tenant, on a weekly tenancy, four unfurnished rooms on the first floor of the house together with the use in common with the landlord of the back bedroom on the first floor and the . .
Cited – Baker v Turner HL 1950
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: . .
Cited – Hayward v Marshall 1952
Whether rooms were let as a separate dwelling. . .
Cited by:
Cited – London Borough of Harrow v Qazi HL 31-Jul-2003
The applicant had held a joint tenancy of the respondent. His partner gave notice and left, and the property was taken into possession. The claimant claimed restoration of his tenancy saying the order did not respect his right to a private life and . .
Cited – Desnousse v London Borough of Newham and others CA 17-May-2006
The occupier had been granted a temporary licence by the authority under the homelessness provisions whilst it made its assessment. The assessment concluded that she had become homeless intentionally, and therefore terminated the licence and set out . .
Cited – Sharif v The London Borough of Camden SC 20-Feb-2013
The council appealed against a decision that having found Ms Sharif to be homeless, they had a duty also to house her sick father and sister as family members in one accomodation unit.
Held: The Council’s appeal succeeded (Lord Kerr . .
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 . .
Cited – Triplerose Ltd v Beattie and Another UTLC 4-Jun-2020
Short term visitor sublets were breach of lease
Landlord and Tenant – Breach of Covenant – covenant against use of flat other than as a private dwelling house and prohibiting use for trade or business – whether breached by use of flat as serviced apartment advertised on internet booking sites – . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Housing, Landlord and Tenant, Human Rights
Leading Case
Updated: 09 November 2021; Ref: scu.166566