Case No. EWHC-185-(Admin)

The pleaded ground is set out below:“Ground 1: the Defendants unreasonably and in breach of s188(1) failed to offer accommodation under s188(1) upon acceptance of the homeless application and/or unfairly failed to notify the Claimant that they considered that the Property discharged the duty under s188(1) but he had a right to challenge the suitability by way of judicial review and/or the Defendants carried out non statutory enquiries.”139.The first part of this ground was repeated in ground 2 as counsel accepted in submissions and so I will deal with the second sentence here.140.At paragraph 33 of the Amended Grounds and in submissions the Claimant went further on notification and stated that Defendants had a duty to inform the Claimant when the duty was accepted and that arose on 12.8.2022. As I have explained above I consider that despite the fact that the statute does not require notification of a decision on S.188(1), for reasons of procedural fairness and because legal costs would be wasted by a failure to inform and appeal and review rights would be delayed, I consider that once a housing authority has made a decision that should be communicated to the applicant but I make no ruling or declaration on that because it is not a stated ground in this judicial review.141.I reject the assertion in the submissions in the Amended Grounds of Claim that the duty to decide arose on the day that the application was made. That will be so in many cases of homeless applicants but not in this case of this applicant who had been in a housing application process for long term council housing for years. In my judgment the duty arose in the circumstances of this case after the Defendants had carried out reasonable clarification requests because of the issues raised by their own previous decisions on the extent of his needs arising from his disabilities and on the basis of the Defendants’ own medical assessments on file and in the absence of any medical evidence from the Claimant. The Claimant eventually answered those requests for clarification on 26.8.2022. I consider that although the starting point for consideration of the S.188(1) engagement was the application, the finish point for the decision was 26.8.2022. There was a delay until 26.9.2022 in the Defendants offering interim accommodation to the Claimant which was not lawful.142.I consider that the law is clear that there was a low threshold for engagement but in the light of the Defendants’ pre-existing decisions on the Claimant’s medical conditions, his need for one bedroom accommodation and day care, the Defendants had a responsibility to clarify the obvious issues quickly by asking for current medical evidence in the form of current GP notes and letters or consultant’s letters or reports or any medical evidence in support which the Claimant had in his possession or could provide and details of the treating GP and consultants and NHS number so the Defendants could clarify issues. I do not consider that these were non statutory inquiries. 143.I have dealt with the right to clarification above. I do not consider that the Defendants carried out inappropriate non statutory inquiries.144.