Human Rights Do Not Justify Possession of Property by Trespasser

When a council tenant who suffers from depression moved into his late brother’s council flat after he had died, the council was none the wiser for a considerable period of time. When it did discover the circumstances, it wrote to the man (who had built up rent arrears on his own flat) saying that it would not be willing to grant him a secure tenancy of his brother’s flat and advising him to return to his own flat.



He failed to heed this advice and served a notice to quit on the council in respect of his flat. The council then sought possession of his brother’s flat.



When the court refused to grant the council possession of the flat on the basis that evicting the man would amount to a disproportionate interference with the right to respect for his private life, family life and his home as guaranteed under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the council appealed.



In the original decision, the judge took particular account of the fact that the man suffers from depression and would find it hard to find a new flat. He was also popular with his neighbours.



The Court of Appeal reversed the decision of the lower court on the basis that the man was a trespasser and it would require ‘quite exceptional circumstances’ before a trespasser could succeed with an argument that he should be granted possession on human rights grounds.



This was not one of those circumstances.