Crowded houses-homelessness and HMOs (Rowe v Haringey LBC)

Table of contents

• What are the practical implications of this case?
• What was the background?
• What did the court decide?
• Case details

Article summary

Local Government analysis: A Court of Appeal judgment dealing with a homelessness application arising from overcrowded housing conditions in a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO). The judgment tackles a number of points in housing and homelessness law but principally seeks to address the correct benchmark for statutory overcrowding in HMOs, and then the interrelation which arises between the concepts of suitability and reasonableness to occupy for purposes of statutory homelessness. The appeal was dismissed: the approach the council had taken to the appellant’s HMO overcrowding was upheld and the appellant’s assertion that the respondent had wrongly failed to take into account factors in relation to suitability, when considering whether it was reasonable to continue to occupy, also failed. Written by Kevin Long, solicitor at Hackney Community Law Centre.