The term “domestic violence” includes threatening or intimidating behaviour which may give rise to the risk of harm, the Supreme Court has ruled.
In Yemshaw v London Borough of Hounslow [2011] UKSC 3, the justices considered whether the term “domestic violence” in s 177 of the Housing Act 1996 was restricted to actual or threatened physical contact, or whether it covered other forms of violent conduct.
The case concerned a woman with two children who sought help from the local housing authority after leaving the marital home because her husband “hates her” and she suspected he was seeing another woman. She was scared that he would hit her if she confronted him, but said he
had never actually threatened to hit her. She said he shouted in front of the children so that she retreated to her bedroom with them, did not give her money for housekeeping and did not treat her “like a human”. She feared he would hit her if she returned home.
The council authorities decided the threat of violence was low and therefore she was intentionally homeless.
The Supreme Court, overturning the
