Case No. EWHC-185-(Admin)

120.To determine eligibility the local authority will need to know that the Claimant had a British passport. On the facts that was not sent to them until 26.8.2022 but I imply that the pre-existing file satisfied that requirement so this check would not take more than a short while. 121.As for the judgment call on whether they had reason to believe that the applicant may be in “accommodation which it would not be reasonable for him to continue to occupy” and whether he may have had a priority need, the application was based on the Claimant’s asserted medical disabilities and the needs arising as a result of those disabilities. This Court is required to decide whether the Defendants were entitled to clarify their own pre-existing medical, care and housing needs decisions against the application on an interim basis to make the judgment call. I consider that they were entitled to do so. This is because the Claimant was asking for two bedroom accommodation for himself and his carer against the background that over the course of their dealings with the Claimant the Defendants had decided that his disabilities required one bedroom accommodation and day care with equipment. The Defendants had received advice from a medical assessor. The Defendants had never accepted that he needed overnight care or a second bedroom or adapted accommodation.122.In the absence of any medical evidence from the Claimant, without clarification how could the Defendants overturn their previous decisions? How could the Defendants determine on an urgent interim basis whether there was reason to believe the Claimant “may” need a two bed flat without current updated medical evidence? Or that he could not reasonably stay where he was for one night longer (or one week longer or one month longer)? The nature of the accommodation which the Defendants were to offer in the interim had to be determined temporarily and the current adequacy and reasonableness of his Park West flat was to be considered quickly. But to do so without any updating medical evidence (GP notes; hospital discharge summaries; GP letters; consultant’s letters; anything showing a diagnosis) on the scope of his current disabilities and his needs provided by the Claimant would be illogical. 123.I accept that, as Hickinbottom J ruled, the Defendants are not entitled to frustrate or delay or fetter the urgent right of a vulnerable homeless person to suitable interim accommodation by non-statutory enquiries. The Defendants were not entitled to fetter or hold up the S.188(1) duty once it was engaged or to hold up the acceptance thereof where requests are in reality a frustration of the principle behind the duty to provide immediate assistance for the homeless. However in this case there was a pre-existing file for the Claimant. It contained decisions with which the Claimant did not agree. It contained a medical assessment with which the Claimant did not agree. An assessment which was partly based on his own GP notes which did not support his asserted medical conditions. In these circumstances in relation to deciding whether they had reason to believe what the nature of the priority need may be under S.188(1) arising from the disabilities, the Defendants had a judgment call to make decide what that had reason to believe “may” be needed in relation to the correct interim allocation of housing for the person who may be homeless but housed. The Defendants had to determine on a very provisional basis whether they had reason to believe what the Claimant’s priority need may have been in the light of the assertions which contradicted the decisions on their own long held file. The Defendants could have decided that the Claimant’s mere assertions did not give reason to believe such they would override their previous decisions on the disabilities. In my judgment this sort of decision on what provides reason to believe the Claimant may need or may suffer from cannot just be an uninformed guess nor a decision made purely on the demands or assertions of the applicant where the Defendants’ own historic file contains firm contrary evidence and decisions based on on medical advice.124.So in relation to this application, taking into account the following circumstances I consider that the Defendants were entitled to seek clarification of whether the Claimant would provide any current medical evidence in support of the Claimant’s asserted current disabilities and needs and to wait for the responses before they determined whether they should change their pre-existing decisions and accept that they had reason to believe the Claimant may have been homeless.