Jon Holbrook considers recent case law on possession claims that could cause untold harm to social housing
Thousands of possession claims are brought each year by landlords who only have to prove ownership of the land and service of a valid notice. These claims are brought against occupiers who, for reasons that serve the wider public interest, do not have security of tenure. Two recent decisions by the Supreme Court have transformed the legal landscape for social landlords who seek to exercise these rights (Pinnock [2010] 3 WLR 1441, [2011] 1 All ER 285 and Powell [2011] UKSC 8, [2011] All ER (D) 255 (Feb)). It is now open to an occupier to resist a possession order on the grounds that it would not be proportionate, having regard to Art 8 of the ECHR, to make the order. This defence will often be combined with a public law defence which has been given life by other recent House of Lords judgments (Kay [2006] 2 AC 465 and Doherty [2009] 1 AC 367).
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