Stephen Cottle of the Garden Court Housing Team represented the first defendant, instructed by Chris Johnson of Community Law Partnership.
The High Court rejected the Government's argument that it was justified to deny security to those living in a mobile home on a protected site, and declared the Mobile Homes Act (MHA) 1983, as amended, to be incompatible with Article 8 of the ECHR, insofar as it required that result.
The Court ruled that part of the MHA 1983, in so far as it excludes those whose agreements were entered into before the land became a protected site, is incompatible with Article 8 of the ECHR.
The defendant, represented by Stephen, falls within a group that the court has decided are unjustifiably excluded from the security of tenure and other provisions of the Mobile Homes Act and that situation is incompatible with Article 8 of the ECHR.
Therefore, the protection provided by the MHA 1983 should be extended to those not presently protected, because their agreement pre-dates obtaining planning permission.
There are over 250,000 people living in mobile homes when last counted over 10 years ago, as their only home. The amount of people in the group affected by this decision is unknown, although it is likely to be fairly small. The High Court's decision is of paramount importance to this group.
The case was covered in Community Law Partnership.
