The council’s final legal bill could end up even bigger than £14,000 as it is responsible for paying 90% of Mr Roman’s legal bills. It means that an applicant who acts reasonably in taking the most suitable accommodation for his family that he can afford disqualifies himself from priority once his children grow to an age which renders that accommodation statutorily overcrowded.” “ council’s approach leads to some odd, or even perverse, consequences. He did not take it with any thought of improving his position on the register, a possibility of which at the time he had no knowledge. In a judgement, Mr Justice Lang said: “At that time he obtained for himself and his family the best accommodation which he could afford. Mr Roman asked the council to place the family in a higher band for council housing because of the size of their flat, but Southwark refused and tried to claim their overcrowding was deliberate.Ī high court judge dismissed the council’s decision in May, ruling that the family were unlawfully excluded by Southwark after it refused to place them on the priority housing list. Milton Laines Roman, his wife Celia and two teenage children had been living in a cramped studio flat for five years. The figure came to light following a question by Southwark’s Lib Dem group to the Labour-run council, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
The local authority revealed it squandered £14,124 in legal fees unsuccessfully trying to claim the family’s overcrowded housing situation was a deliberate act. A judge overturned Southwark Council’s decision to refuse to give the family a higher priority for rehousing in May. A South London council spent £14,000 on a failed high court battle to stop a family-of-four living in a studio flat from getting a bigger house.
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