Howells wins Court of Appeal case for family to remain in home | Howells Solicitors
Make a payment

Howells wins Court of Appeal case for family to remain in home

Howells Solicitors

21 Nov, 2013

A recent Howells housing case has had a successful outcome at the Court of Appeal.

Mrs Shearer had resided in the Humberstone property with her late husband and two daughters. Following the death of her husband in February 2011, Leicester City Council applied for an application to remove her from the property on the grounds that Mr Shearer was the named tenant of the address and therefore Mrs Shearer and her children had no rights to continue living there. Leicester Council said that it was unable to allow Mrs Shearer to stay in her home.

The application was rejected at Northampton County Court, in September 2011. Leicester City Council then approached the Court of Appeal to have the decision overturned.

The appeal court bench, made up of Lord Justice Jackson, Lord Justice Floyd and Sir David Keene, unanimously dismissed the council’s appeal and ruled that Mrs Shearer and her two daughters, aged six and 10, should be allowed to stay in the home.

Lord Justice Jackson told the council it should have used discretion in a case which clearly constituted “exceptional circumstances” and that the authority acted “unlawfully” in its pursuit of an eviction order.

Mrs Shearer said she was now looking forward to putting the issue behind her and moving on with her life.

For media releases on this please see:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-25006416

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Grieving-widow-hell-council-tries-evict-following/story-20100739-detail/story.html

Howells staff have been collecting for ‘Cash for Kids’ in Hull.

Age Discrimination in employment and recruitment