Newham LBC v Hawkins

Mr Hawkins was the sole tenant of a Newham council family home. In 1987 he died, and his wife succeeded to the tenancy. When she got into rent arrears, the council was granted a suspended possession order. By 1992 that had been breached, and Mrs Hawkins’ tenancy ended.

But the council did not evict her. In law, she became a “tolerated trespasser”, and the council treated her as a tenant. She died in 1998, and her sons remained in occupation.

When the council claimed possession, the sons said their mother had, in effect, been granted a new tenancy between 1992 and 1998 and that they qualified to succeed to it.

The Court of Appeal upheld the possession order. It decided that the council’s conduct had not amounted to the grant of a new tenancy. There had been no offer of new terms nor any demand for increased rent. Mrs Hawkins’ continued occupation had simply been the result of Newham’s forbearance from enforcing the possession order.

Source

Housing Today

Reference

The court said there were “very many” tolerated trespassers in social housing. Note, however, that Newham had annually increased the “mesne profits” and not increased the rent. Unusually, the original possession order wording did not say that it would end when the arrears were paid off. Without all or any of these factors, the result may well have been different.