Decision Summary Information

Back to Results | Search Again | Most Recent Decisions

Neutral Citation Number:
Reported Number:	R(H)9/08
File Number:	CH 4250 2006
Appellant:
Respondent:
Judge/Commissioner:	Judge H. Levenson
Date Of Decision:	20/03/2008
Date Added:	11/04/2008
Main Category:	Housing and council tax benefits
Main Subcategory:	payments that are eligible for HB
Secondary Category:
Secondary Subcategory:
Notes:	Housing benefit – eligible payments – mooring charges – meaning of “houseboat” The claimant was living on a canal narrow boat at a British Waterways mooring. He had no other home and the boat was fitted out for permanent residence. The boat was registered as a leisure craft and not as a houseboat. The claimant had a cruising licence. He was refused a mooring licence by British Waterways to continue at the mooring, where he had been for a couple of months, but he was unable to relocate the boat and stayed at the mooring. He was invoiced for mooring charges and he claimed housing benefit in respect of those mooring charges. The authority refused this claim on the basis there was no planning consent for residential use and also doubted that a residential narrow boat constituted a “houseboat” within the regulations. The claimant appealed. The tribunal upheld the decision of the authority, and the claimant appealed to the Commissioner. Held, allowing the appeal, that: 1. it was not relevant for the purposes of regulation 10 of the Housing Benefit (General) Regulations 1987 whether the use of the mooring was lawful or whether there was planning permission (paragraph 18); 2. regulation 10(1) provides that “ the payments in respect of which housing benefit is payable … are the following periodical payments which a person is liable to make in respect of the dwelling which he occupies as his home” and the mooring charges payable by the claimant came within this definition. It was not a necessary part of the concept of a “home” that there were facilities, utilities, shops or security arrangements (paragraph 17); 3. for the purposes of the housing benefit regulations, “houseboat” is an ordinary English word without a technical meaning. The tribunal was mistaken in its reliance on the lack of a licence for residential mooring and on the form of registration of the boat. It is a matter of fact in an individual case whether a boat is a “houseboat” (paragraphs 19 and 20); The Commissioner set aside the decision of the tribunal. He substituted his own decision that, subject to the satisfaction of other conditions of entitlement, the claimant was entitled to housing benefit.
Decision(s) to Download:	R(H) 9-08 bv.doc