Holmes-Moorhouse v Richmond upon Thames London Borough Council

Subject Matter

LOCAL GOVERNMENT — Homeless persons — Priority need — Family court making uncontested shared residence order by consent in respect of three children — Local authority rejecting homeless father's application for accommodation as homeless person in priority need — Whether family court order determinative of whether children “might reasonably be expected to reside” with father — Whether local housing authority obliged to evaluate reasonableness of expectation — Whether scarcity of housing resources relevant to evaluation of reasonableness — Whether children residing or merely staying with father — Whether reasonable to expect that children would live with father — Children Act 1989, ss 1(3)(f)(4), 8(1) — Housing Act 1996, s 189(1)(b)

[2007] EWCA Civ 970; [2008] 1 WLR 1289; [2008] LGR 1; [2008] 1 FLR 1061, CA

[2009] UKHL 7; [2009] 1 WLR 413; [2009] PTSR 698; [2009] 3 All ER 277; [2009] LGR 730; [2009] 1 FLR 904, HL(E)

Appellate History