Hackney London Borough Council have won an Appeal Court challenge to a June 2000 county court ruling that they were wrong to refuse Papinder Sareen a review of their decision not to refer his application to be rehoused from accommodation in Enfield, allocated by Hackney, to Ealing.
The case focused upon the provisions of section 202 of the Housing Act 1996, and whether they entitle an applicant, under Part VII (Homelessness), to request a statutory review of a decision such as that taken by Hackney.
Allowing the council’s appeal, Auld LJ said that the case raised three main issues. The first and most important of these was whether an applicant for housing assistance, under sections 183 and 184 of the 1996 Act, had a right to require a local housing authority, under section 202, to review their decision not to refer its application to another authority under section 198 of the Act, and, in consequence, a right of appeal on a point of law to the county court.
Assuming that there were such rights, the second issue for consideration, was whether the council had a duty to investigate the matter of the applicant’s local connection. The council’s failure to comply with this point had vitiated their first decision not to refer the case to another authority.
The third issue raised the question of whether the judge had jurisdiction, on appeal under section 204, to consider the council’s decision that conditions for referral were not met and/or whether he had erred in law in quashing that decision.
Allowing the appeal, the judges ruled that, on all three issues, the county court judge did not have the jurisdiction to reach the decision he had.
Focusing on section 202, Auld LJ said that he did not consider that Part VII of section 202 provided a statutory right of review of an authority’s decision not to refer an application under section 198. It followed that there was no statutory right of appeal to the county court under section 204, and he therefore found that, in those circumstances, the judge did not have jurisdiction.
Sareen v Hackney London Borough Council Court of Appeal (Auld and Chadwick LJJ) 19 March 2003.
References: PLS News 20/03/03
