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No order for costs after mother and child’s judicial review found moot by ordinary housing offer
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The High Court refused to award costs to either party following moot judicial review proceedings, where an applicant mother and her minor daughter challenged the local authority’s refusal to grant them priority status on the social housing list due to their experiences of domestic violence. After proceedings commenced, the applicants were offered and accepted housing through the ordinary course of the social housing list, rendering the case moot. The court found that the offer was not made in response to the litigation but arose in the normal operation of the authority’s functions. As a result, each side was ordered to bear its own costs, with the court finding no exceptional circumstances to depart from the default position in moot cases.
mootness – judicial review – costs order – social housing list – priority status – domestic violence – minor applicant – statutory authority – Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 – section 22(7) – ordinary housing allocation – relief sought: quashing refusal of priority – leave to apply for judicial review – no order as to costs – legal principles: costs in mootness cases – Rules of the Superior Courts (RSC) – interests of justice
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