A woman, who had lived with her mother, has failed in her challenge to the refusal of her mother’s landlords, Brent London Borough Council, to grant her application for succession to the tenancy following her mother’s death in 2002.
The council had originally granted the mother a secure tenancy of the four-bedroom house, which she had shared with her daughter and two sons.
In the mid-1960s, the mother was made the subject of a suspended possession order, but went on to breach a conditional order that she pay off rent arrears. No action was taken against the mother, but, when she died, her daughter sought succession to the secure tenancy. The council refused her application on the basis of the earlier breach of the rent arrears repayment order.
The daughter challenged that refusal, claiming that it amounted to a breach of her right to respect for her family life under section 8(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Rejecting her challenge, Collins J ruled that, in the circumstances, the council had been entitled to reject the daughter’s application. He said that there could be “exceptional cases” where such an approach would be disproportionate, but that this was not one of them.
R (on the application of Mays) v Brent London Borough Council Queen’s Bench Division (Collins J) 3 March 2003.
References: PLS News 04/03/03
