‘This article focusses on the approach that reviewing officers should take when deciding whether someone has made themselves intentionally homeless following the Court of Appeal’s decision in LB v London Borough of Tower Hamlets [2020] EWCA Civ 439.’
St Ives Chambers, 29th April 2020
Source: www.stiveschambers.co.uk
‘The conditions in which many statutorily homeless people live are frequently sub-optimal. Everyone has an anecdotal story of a family of five provided with temporary accommodation in a studio flat above a nightclub which is accessed via a dark alleyway, which the local authority insist is suitable. A frequent source of controversy is the use of hostels to discharge duties, where potentially highly vulnerable people are required to live with and share facilities with those who they do not know.’
Doughty Street Chambers, 1st May 2020
Source: insights.doughtystreet.co.uk
‘The onset of Covid-19 gave rise to a massive effort to provide health care services and accommodation for homeless persons. This includes not just those people who are rough sleeping, but also those otherwise at risk without a home, such as those living in hostels and B&B accommodation. A range of organisations have assisted in this process, from medical health professionals to local authorities, who have procured empty hotels and other spaces for homeless persons to self-isolate as well as acted on the government’s guidance to keep temporary accommodation open.’
Doughty Street Chambers, 17th April 2020
Source: insights.doughtystreet.co.uk
‘A second appeal on a homelessness review, where a finding of intentional homelessness had been upheld, raising an important point on whether events or factors post-dating the decision or action that led to eviction need to be considered on review.’
Nearly Legal, 19th April 2020
Source: nearlylegal.co.uk
‘The Court of Appeal has upheld the decisions of two councils where reviewing officers had considered the Public Sector Equality Duty without making clear findings as to whether the applicant in each case was disabled, and concluded that those applicants were not vulnerable. Michael Paget, Zoë Whittington, Catherine Rowlands and Rowan Clapp report.’
Local Government Lawyer, 17th April 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘Today [2 April] the Court of Appeal handed down judgment in James v Hertsmere Borough Council [2020] EWCA Civ 489. The judgment answered a question that has been troubling homelessness lawyers for several years now: does the County Court have jurisdiction, when hearing homelessness appeals, to consider challenges to councils’ ‘contracting-out’ processes?’
Garden Court Chambers, 2nd April 2020
Source: www.gardencourtchambers.co.uk
‘We saw the approach of the Court of Appeal to the operation of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) in possession proceedings in Luton Community Housing v Durdana. Now, in these joined appeals, the Court of Appeal turns its attention to PSED in homeless decisions and reviews.’
Nearly Legal, 12th April 2020
Source: nearlylegal.co.uk
‘Serco is a private company that was contracted by the UK Home Office between 2012 and 2019 to provide accommodation to asylum seekers living in Glasgow. In July 2018, Serco began to implement the “move on protocol” – a new policy of changing locks and evicting asylum seekers without a court order if they were no longer eligible for asylum support. This put around 300 asylum seekers – who had no right to work or who had no right to homeless assistance – at risk of eviction and homelessness in Glasgow without any court process.’
UK Human Rights Blog, 8th April 2020
Source: ukhumanrightsblog.com
‘Ms Durdana was a tenant of LCH. She faced possession proceedings under ground 17 Sch 2 Housing Act 1988 – that the landlord was induced to grant the tenancy by a false statement made knowingly or recklessly by the tenant or someone acting at the tenant’s instigation.’
Nearly Legal, 6th April 2020
Source: nearlylegal.co.uk
‘What can be addressed in a section 204 Housing Act 1996 appeal of a review decision? What is the scope of the jurisdiction? This second appeal provides answers, albeit in a rather phyrric way.’
Nearly Legal, 6th April 2020
Source: nearlylegal.co.uk
‘The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal over whether it was not reasonable for the appellant to stay in a property from which she was evicted for rent arrears given that there was evidence she had been subjected to domestic violence.’
Local Government Lawyer, 26th March 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘Here are emergency regulations, The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020, made today. These, amongst many other things, deal with what commercial premises may open, or must be closed, and – to the point here – restrictions on individual movement.’
Nearly Legal, 26th March 2020
Source: nearlylegal.co.uk
‘The Home Office will stop evicting asylum seekers from government accommodation for the next three months while the UK remains in coronavirus lockdown, the British Red Cross has said.’
The Guardian, 28th March 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Lord Justice Hickinbottom has given guidance on making applications to the Court of Appeal for interim relief, in a housing case he declined to conclude because it had become academic.’
Local Government Lawyer, 25th March 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘Folkestone and Hythe Council was threatened with a court summons by the Local Government Ombudsman over its handling of a complaint about its treatment of a homeless family.’
Local Government Lawyer, 20th February 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘A young and highly vulnerable British sex trafficking victim was re-trafficked by county lines drug gangs on multiple occasions after the Home Office repeatedly refused to fulfil its legal obligation to provide her with safe accommodation.’
The Guardian, 16th February 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Giving judgment in the case of Al-Ahmed v Tower Hamlets London Borough Council [2020] EWCA Civ 51 on 30 January 2020, the Court of Appeal gave important guidance on when a homeless applicant may be permitted to bring an appeal outside of the 21-day time limit, against a local authority’s decision on his or her homeless application. It rejected a High Court decision which had found that the requirements of bringing a homelessness appeal were not ‘especially sophisticated or taxing’ and therefore there was not a good reason why Mr Al Ahmed could not have issued the appeal as a litigant in person during the time limit.’
Garden Court Chambers, 30th January 2020
Source: www.gardencourtchambers.co.uk
‘We saw the High Court in this case take an incredibly strict approach to homelessness section 204 appeal timescales (our report), deciding that seeking legal aid representation could not be a good reason for filing an appeal out of time because, well, the substance of any appeal should be obvious to an unrepresented homeless applicant. We expressed considerable doubts about the realism of this decision at the time. Now, as it turns out, the Court of Appeal has had similar doubts.’
Nearly Legal, 2nd February 2020
Source: nearlylegal.co.uk
‘The Court of Appeal has overturned a High Court ruling that the fact a homeless applicant was unrepresented and seeking legal aid was not a “good reason” for delay in bringing an appeal under s.204 of the Housing Act 1996 against an adverse review decision under the homelessness provisions of that Act.’
Local Government Lawyer, 31st January 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The London Borough of Tower Hamlets has agreed to consider service resources and “the changes it needs to make to work in line with the law” after a Local Government and Social Ombudsman investigation into how a pregnant woman, who approached the council for help when she was made homeless, was left in an unfurnished flat, miles from her support network.’
Local Government Lawyer, January 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
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