The ruling on secure tenancy succession rights in Turley is good news for hard-pressed housing authorities, says Nicholas Dobson
- 12 month tenancy succession qualification period for cohabitees lawful and proportionate.
Housing authorities have a tough job in balancing scarce resources fairly in line with the extensive and pervasive body of applicable law. So when an authority tells someone they fall outside a clear statutory rule which deprives them of their home, the person dispossessed is naturally going to get lawyers rummaging rigorously through the legals to attack the decision. Old regulars in this area are Art 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) (right to respect for private and family life) and Art 14 (prohibition of discrimination). The acid test in such cases is proportionality. Or, in crude shorthand, whether the means reasonably justify the ends, a fair balance has been struck between the rights of the individual and the wider community and whether the particular limitation is manifestly without reasonable foundation.
Such was so in a decision of the Court of Appeal in Turley v Wandsworth LBC and the Secretary of State for Communities
