MyLegal - Challenged a local authority decision

« Challenged a local authority decision »

Welcome Guest. Please Login or Register.
May 25, 2013, 8:00am

[Home] [New Topics] [Help] [Search] [Login]

MyLegal

WE HAVE MOVED TO A NEW HOME! PLEASE REGISTER AND CONTINUE THE DISCUSSION THERE. THIS SITE HAS NOW BEEN ARCHIVED FOR REFERENCE PURPOSES. THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS AND SUPPORT SO FAR AND WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU ON OUR NEW SITE

Login using your social network or forum account:

MyLegal :: Talk about legal advice :: Read and share stories about people helped by legal advice :: Challenged a local authority decision

Author

Topic: Challenged a local authority decision (Read 462 times)

Patrick Torsney
Administrator

member is offline

[avatar]

Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 204
Location: London

Challenged a local authority decision
« Thread Started on Dec 6, 2010, 3:37pm »

Miss D is a 24 year old lady with 1 child aged 3.

When she moved into rented accommodation she claimed Housing Benefit to cover her housing costs as she was in receipt of Income Support. However, Miss D was refused Housing Benefit as she was deemed to have a "non commercial tenancy" under regulation 9(4) of the Housing Benefits: the landlord was her father.

Without the rent he was unable to make mortgage payments on the property. The mortgage company started court proceedings against her father. He therefore had to start action to evict her, causing considerable family conflict.

We were able to advise on Housing Benefit Regulations relating to non commercial tenancies and after looking at the facts of her case we concluded her tenancy was commercial and as a result of submitting an appeal the decision was reconsidered and Miss Dann received Housing Benefit within a month period.

The representations that we made were based on the case of R(Mackay) V Barking and Dagenham HBRB [2001] EWCA 234 (HC).

The Housing Benefit department were unaware of this particular case but were persuaded by the arguments and representations we made and awarded the appropriate amount of housing benefit.

Accordingly as the matter was resolved we were able to withdraw the appeal. Miss D was then able to pay her rent and her father was able to pay the mortgage.

As a result the following things were prevented and associated costs avoided:

a full appeal process to an appeal tribunal on the housing benefit issue
a full court process instigated by the mortgage company for repossession and eviction of Miss D's father
a homelessness application for re-housing from Ms D and thus the likely allocation of a council house, and
a full scale family argument that could have changed the relationships in the family for many years to come.

The cost to the public purse for this case was a fixed fee of £167 + VAT.

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

Please show some support for MyLegal by registering. It's free and takes about 20 seconds

Follow @Mylegalforum

Disclaimer: any opinion expressed on myLegal is the personal opinion of whoever expressed it. It does not necessarily represent the views of the creator or supporters of myLegal, other registered users or other organisations. No liability can be accepted or implied otherwise. Providing they credit myLegal, the media and other organisations and groups are free to use case studies and information placed on myLegal so, please bear this in mind when you post. Please use myLegal sensibly and constructively so that everyone may benefit from it. Any inappropriate message will be deleted and the user may be banned – the decision of the moderator is final. If you have any concerns about a particular post, then please use the 'report to mod' button below the post to flag it up with a moderator. myLegal and the views expressed herein are not an alternative to you seeking professional legal advice. myLegal, myLegal logo and branding are © Patrick Torsney 2012 Click Here To Make This Board Ad-Free