In a judgment handed down on 26 November 2021, the Court of Appeal explained the duty on local housing authorities in the Housing Act 1996 s.184 and s.191(2), and clarified the scope of the inquiries to be made where there was reason to believe that a person was intentionally homeless because they had deliberately and not in good faith ceased to occupy their accommodation.
In dismissing the appeal, the Court of Appeal agreed with the submissions of Stephen Evans and David Mold, representing Haringey, that there was simply no trigger in any of the information provided by the Appellant to alert the Local Authority to the real possibility that the reason the Appellant had given up her settled accommodation abroad to come to the UK was that she had an active belief that her continuation in the job her sister had found for her in the UK would arise or continue in the future, based on a genuine investigation about those prospects, and not on mere aspiration.
The full judgment in Ciftci v LB Haringey may be found here.