Annette Cafferkey analyses some recent significant housing cases
In McCann v UK the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) held that the order for possession was an unjustified interference with the applicant’s right to respect for his home (Art 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)). In 1998 the applicant and his wife were granted a joint tenancy of a three bedroom house by Birmingham City Council. The marriage was not harmonious and the couple separated following allegations of domestic violence. The wife was advised by the authority’s officers to serve a notice to quit which, when it expired, determined the tenancy. The authority subsequently obtained a possession order. The ECtHR held that this order constituted an unlawful interference with the applicant’s right to respect for his home because it was obtained on a mandatory basis, without any consideration being given to the circumstances in which the notice to quit had been served. The possession proceedings had not afforded the applicant sufficient procedural safeguards with which to ensure that the possession order was a proportionate response to a legitimate aim and, thus, necessary in
