Court of Appeal to hear case on public sector equality duty and possession orders over false representations

A case concerning the interrelationship between the public sector equality duty and the court’s discretion to make a possession order because of false representations is to go to the Court of Appeal, it has been reported.

4-5 Gray’s Inn Square said Her Honour Judge Bloom had granted permission to the claimant to appeal in Luton Community Housing Trust v Durdana on the important point of principle about the interrelationship between the PSED and the court’s discretion to make a possession order under Ground 17, Housing Act 1988.

Ground 17 concerns cases where “the tenant is the person, or one of the persons, to whom the tenancy was granted and the landlord was induced to grant the tenancy by a false statement made knowingly or recklessly by—

(a) the tenant, or

(b) a person acting at the tenant’s instigation."

4-5 said the judge “recognised that this was an area that required clarity, referring to the forthcoming appeal in Forward v Aldwyck Housing Group Ltd which also concerns what the effect of breach of the PSED has on the making of a possession order on discretionary grounds”.

Stephanie Lovegrove from 4-5 appeared for the claimant. Toby Vanhegan from the same set appeared for the defendant and is counsel for the appellant in Forward.