Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council v Hickin [2012] UKSC 39
Supreme Court, Lord Hope DP, Lord Walker, Lord Mance, Lord Clarke and Lord Sumption SCJJ, 25 July 2012
The appellant was not entitled to succeed as the secure tenant of a local authority property, in circumstances where the property had been let to her parents, the father had left and the mother had subsequently died. The property went to the father and, as he was not residing there, the authority was entitled to possession.
Jan Luba QC and Nicholas Nicol (instructed by Quality Solicitors Evans Derry) for the appellant. Bryan McGuire QC and Catherine Rowlands (instructed by Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council Legal Services) for the authority.
The parents became joint tenants of a three bedroom house in 1967. The freehold ownership was transferred to the respondent local authority in September 1980. On 3 October 1980, Pt II of the Housing Act 1980 (HA 1980) came into force and the tenancy became a secure tenancy. The parents lived together until some time after 1980 when the father left. Thereafter,
