Securing Safe And Suitable Housing: A Victory For Our Client Against Unsuitable Accommodation

Our client was living in unsuitable hotel accommodation with her three young children in London. She was living there for approximately two months. The property was highly unsuitable as it was a one bedroom hotel room and she was forced to reside there for over the statutory limit of six weeks. There were no safe cooking facilities, serious fire risks and an unsafe window without child locks to ensure the safety of the children. We wrote to the local authority urgently and requested their proposals for safe suitable alternative accommodation for our client.

At the same time, the local authority failed to extend her hotel booking leaving our client and her three children street homeless. We contacted the local authority who then provided hotel accommodation for the evening and subsequently made an offer of alternative temporary accommodation under the main housing duty.

The offer of accommodation was considerably further from her area of support including where her carer provided necessary care and where she could obtain childcare. Our client was forced to travel up to 7 hours a day to drop-off and pick up her children and make the return journey every day. This had also prevented her from working, meaning the travel costs and lack of income rendered the property unaffordable.

We assisted our client with a review of the suitability of the property and sent representations to the local authority. The local authority made a final decision that the property was suitable. They proposed that the children should move schools and this would reduce the journey time and make the property affordable. They considered that practical support could be provided by online delivery services, yet failed to properly consider the emotional support needs of our client.

We lodged an appeal on the basis that the local authority had not taken into consideration the impact of our client in not having access to her carer and the subsequent impact on her children. The decision failed to recognise the need for both emotional and practical support. The decision failed to take properly account for the welfare of the children as per Nzolameso. The suggestion to move schools did not adequately consider the impact on the children having to move schools a number of times in recent years, nor had the local authority made inquiries into whether the children would be accepted into local schools mid-year. The local authority also failed to have a ‘sharp focus’ in regard to our client’s disabilities in considering the impact of the accommodation placement on her mental health.

Following skeleton arguments and prior to the appeal hearing, the case was settled as the local authority agreed to conduct a fresh review. We submitted representations in support of our client’s position and the second review concluded the offer of accommodation was in fact unsuitable for our client and her family. The local authority is now due to make a further offer of suitable accommodation to our client.

The Appellant was represented by Sioned Roberts and Tess Baker of Hodge Jones & Allen, who instructed Edward Fitzpatrick of Garden Court Chambers in the appeal.

Sioned Roberts and Tess Baker commented: “We were pleased to support our client who was successful in her review challenging the suitability of her accommodation. She has had to wait over a year in unsuitable accommodation due to the local authority initially failing to accept that the property was unsuitable, resulting in an appeal and lengthy preparations for court. This unfortunately highlights the lack of access to homelessness support and provision of suitable accommodation in the UK and the sadly frequent failures of local authorities to meaningfully consider homeless applicants’ circumstances. We hope that this draws attention to the need for systemic change in local authority thinking around homelessness and the impact this has on families.”

Sioned Roberts is a Senior Associate in the Housing and Discrimination team with diverse experience in all aspects of housing law. She specializes in human rights, public law, and discrimination cases. Committed to legal aid and social justice, Sioned provides high-quality legal service to all clients, regardless of their means.

Tess Baker is a Paralegal in our Housing team who assists on matters relating to disrepair, possession orders and homelessness applications.