Court of Appeal (on appeal from Aldershot & Farnham County Court)
Solicitor: Lee & Co
Opponent: Jane Hodgson, Arden Chambers
I acted for the Defendants, two middle-aged ladies who suffered from serious mental illness which caused them to believe that their neighbours were behaving unreasonably, and to continually complain about this. These complaints and their other responses to the perceived nuisance from the neighbours were themselves held to be a form of nuisance justifying the making of a possession order against them. The judge was ultimately held to have approached the matter on the correct legal basis, but the higher courts were forced to confront the reality that these ladies would not realistically be able to be housed anywhere if the order was upheld, even though they did not pose a danger to anybody and did not require in-patient psychiatric treatment. The successful obtaining of permission to appeal did however mean that they could stay in their home for a further year and, as there were no further incidents in this time, the housing association may now not enforce the possession order against them.
