Local governmentHomeless persons - intentionally homeless - young mother with two young children leaving home in fear of domestic violence from male partner - mother not disentitled to housingBond v Leicester City Council: CA (Lord Justice Hale and Mr Justice David Steel): 23 October 2001The applicant, a young mother of two very young children, moved out of her home to escape from her violent male partner, the father of her children, who kept following the applicant when she had moved from her previous homes to escape from his domestic violence.She applied to the local housing authority for accommodation under the Housing Act 1996, but her application was refused.

The refusal was confirmed on review and on appeal by the county court on the ground that she had intentionally made herself homeless by failing to take legal actions to oust her partner from her home and by failing to sever contact with him.

The applicant appealed.

Jan Luba QC and James Stark (instructed by Shelter Housing Aid and Research Project) for the applicant; Andrew Arden QC and William Okoya (instructed by Leicester City Council Legal Services) for the council.Held, allowing the appeal, that neither the applicant's failure to sever her contact with the father of her two children nor her failure to take legal proceedings against him was a relevant factor to brand her as intentionally homeless; that where there was a 'probability' of domestic violence within the meaning of section 171(1) of the Housing Act 1996, as opposed to actual violence from the partner, the applicant's departure from her former home did not make her intentionally homeless; and that, accordingly, the housing authority had taken account of irrelevant factors in refusing to house the applicant under section 193 of the Housing Act 1996.