Housing association loses 'public body' test case in High Court » Housing » 24dash.com

A housing association lost a test case battle today to avoid being classified as a public body susceptible to human rights challenges in the High Court.

Two senior judges ruled London & Quadrant Housing Trust (LQHT) fell into the "public body" category when allocating housing or seeking to evict tenants.

Housing associations fear that today's ruling could open the floodgates for costly judicial review applications being brought against them in their role as registered social landlords (RSLs) offering affordable housing.

The decision at London's High Court was greeted with dismay by LQHT, which warned that it could affect the ability of housing associations to finance their operations - "thereby potentially risking the future delivery of affordable housing".

Lord Justice Richards and Mrs Justice Swift, acknowledging that their decision raised an issue of public importance, gave LQHT permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal.

Today's groundbreaking ruling came in the case of Susan Weaver, of Stanborough Close, Hampton, south-west London, who is fighting eviction by LQHT.

Mrs Weaver has been a tenant of LQHT, a registered social landlord under the 1996 Housing Act, since 1993.

She challenged the trust's decision to evict her using powers under ground 8 of schedule 2 of the 1998 Housing Act, which allows an association to seek possession if a tenant has at least eight weeks' rent arrears.

Under the Act, a court must make an order for possession if ground 8 is established.

Lawyers for Mrs Weaver argued that LQHT was in breach of her legitimate expectation that it would pursue all reasonable alternatives before seeking possession.

They said the trust's actions as an RSL breached Mrs Weaver's right to respect for her private and family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as her property rights under Article 1 of Protocol 1 of the convention.

Rejecting her claim, Lord Justice Richards said LQHT was justified in seeking possession "in the light of the history of substantial and repeated defaults" by Mrs Weaver.

But of more importance to housing associations and RSLs generally was the judges' rejection of LQHT's wider argument that it was not amenable to judicial review in any event because it was not a public body.

Lord Justice Richards declared: "The management and allocation of housing stock by LQHT, including decisions concerned with the termination of tenancies, is a function of a public nature."

The LQHT therefore had to be regarded as a public authority amenable to judicial review with regard to that function under the 1998 Human Rights Act.

In their ruling, the judges described how social housing organisations provided affordable housing to those "whose needs were not met by the market".

About one half of social housing in England and Wales was provided by RSLs, amounting to some two million homes.

Later LQHT said it was "pleased" that the court had found the steps that it had taken to seek possession against Mrs Weaver were reasonable and proportionate, but "disappointed" that RSLs had been declared amenable to judicial review.

Mike Donaldson, LQHT's group resident services director, said: "RSLs have operated as private sector organisations for many years and are dependent upon raising private finance in the marketplace to make their operations viable.

"The sudden transposition of RSLs into the public sector seems to misunderstand the nature of such organisations and puts at risk RSLs'
ability to finance their operations, thereby potentially risking the future delivery of affordable housing."

Nick Billingham of Devonshires, solicitors to LQHT, said: "This is a surprising result in the light of previous case law, and one which runs counter to other decisions of the Court of Appeal and House of Lords.

"LQHT will be pursuing an appeal against this part of the judgment."

Liberty's legal officer, Anna Fairclough, an expert on the Human Rights Act, said later: "This is a really important judgment in difficult economic times, which means that social tenants have the right to be heard before their landlord can evict them.

"The public will be delighted to see that human rights aren't just for criminal suspects but for everyone."