Local authority serving statutory repair notices on applicants under sections 189 and 190 of Housing Act 1985 – Local authority refusing applications for housing renovation grants – Whether local authority having duty under section 113 of Local Government and Housing Act 1989 to approve properly made application for renovation grant
Glen International Ltd (Glen), the first applicant, was the landlord of 22/22A Fairthorn Road, London SE7, and the second applicant, R, was the freehold owner of 31 Gurdon Road, London SE7. The respondents were the local authority responsible for administering housing renovation grants under the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 (the 1989 Act). The respondents served repair notices under section 190 of the Housing Act 1985 (the 1985 Act), requiring Glen to carry out certain works to be commenced not later than February 11 1991 and to be completed three months thereafter. On July 26 1991 the respondents received an application from Glen for housing renovation grants under the 1989 Act. In the decision letter (the first refusal), the respondents stated that Glen was not entitled to a renovation grant and that the works had been completed on a date prior to the receipt of Glen’s application. In respect of 31 Gurdon Road, the respondents served notices on R under sections 189 and 190 of the 1985 Act, requiring works to be commenced by May 17 1992 and to be completed within four months. R applied for a grant in respect of those works in January 1995. The respondents were supplied with an estimate from a construction firm, an invoice from the same firm and an estimate from a chartered quantity surveyor. In the decision letter (the second refusal), the respondents stated that the works were substantially completed prior to the applications having been approved, and the application was refused under section 108 of the 1985 Act.
Both applicants sought to quash the decisions contending that where a local authority had served a repair notice under either section 189 or 190 of the 1985 Act, the authority were under a duty under section 113 of the 1989 Act to approve a properly made application for a renovation grant. It was submitted, inter alia: (1) that the requirement under section 108 of the 1985 Act, not to approve grants where work had already commenced before the application had been approved, did not apply to work done pursuant to statutory notices by reason of section 108(2)(b); and (2) that the respondents had erred in considering that, by virtue of section 102 of the Act, they were obliged to reject the application in the absence of estimates from at least two contractors. The respondents submitted, inter alia, that, although an applicant might start his works before the application was made, the works were not to be completed before approval.
Held The respondents’ decisions were flawed.
1. The requirement under section 108 not to approve grants where work had already been commenced before the application had been approved, was disapplied by section 108(2)(b) in relation to work done, as the work in the instant case was done, in accordance with statutory notices. The respondents were therefore under a duty to reconsider the applications with respect to both 22/22A Fairthorn Road and 31 Gurdon Road.
2. Furthermore, with respect to 31 Gurdon Road, the respondents had failed to consider their power under the Act to waive the requirement for two estimates. They had erred in law in wrongly considering themselves bound by section 102 to conclude that no grant was to be paid unless at least two estimates from different contractors of the cost of carrying out the relevant works had been provided with the grant application.
Richard Drabble QC and Gregory Jones (instructed by Birketts, of Colchester) appeared for the applicants; Andrew Arden QC and Christopher Baker (instructed by the solicitor to Greenwich London Borough Council) appeared for the respondents.
