Meaning of 'homeless'

Yemshaw v Hounslow London Borough Council [2011] UKSC 3; [2011] WLR (D) 18; SJ 8 February p30

The effect of s177(1) of the Housing Act 1996 is that a person who is at risk of ‘domestic violence or other violence’ is automatically homeless, even though she had every right to remain in the accommodation concerned and however reasonable it might in other respects be for her to do so. She could not be treated as intentionally homeless if she left. In the present case the claimant had left the matrimonial home because of her husband’s behaviour, which included shouting in front of the children and not giving her any money for housekeeping. She said that she was scared that if she confronted him he might hit her or take the children away. She accepted that he had never actually hit or threatened to hit her. Both the county court judge and the Court of Appeal held that the local housing authority was entitled to conclude that she was not homeless within the meaning of the Housing Act 1996 as it was reasonable for her to continue to occupy the matrimonial home.