European test case could mean RSLs are obliged to offer 13,000 homes for sale
Housing associations could be forced to put 13,000 homes up for sale under the right to buy if a pensioner wins his European court battle against the government.

Tom Allen owns three-quarters of his Doncaster bungalow under a leasehold scheme for the elderly and wants to buy the remaining quarter from "Johnnie" Johnson Housing Trust. The 74-year-old does not have the right to do so under current law, which he claims is discriminatory.

Allen has been in correspondence with the European Court of Human Rights, which has agreed to hear the case.

Allen said: "At the moment I am paying a service charge [of £11.68 a month] to the housing association and the question is, what am I paying for? We are all pensioners here and our incomes are limited."

"Johnnie" Johnson has 475 leasehold homes for the elderly and there are an estimated 13,000 across the country.

They are currently exempt from the "right to acquire", the housing association version of the scheme that allows council tenants to buy their homes.

I am paying a service charge to the housing association and the question is, what am I paying for?

Tom Allen, tenant

Associations could be forced to offer them for sale at a discounted price to leaseholders if Allen is successful in his case.

Jim Lunney, chief executive of "Johnnie" Johnson Housing Trust, said: "Should he win this case, it will have tremendous implications for elderly people's housing across Europe, let alone in this country. It would take a considerable amount of specially designed housing out of circulation. I think anyone who has invested in that would be concerned."

Allen has won support from the Guinness Trust's tenant federation. Vice-chairman Trevor Hankins said he had been fighting for a change to the law for two years, and hoped that the homeownership taskforce report, to be published on 13 November, would support his case.

The report is expected to recommend extending tenant's right to acquire their housing association homes in areas of low demand, but not to automatically give the right to buy to all tenants. (HT 3 October, page 9).

Hankins said: "Whatever you think about the right to buy, you have to admit that it's only fair that everybody should be treated in the same way."

Source

Housing Today