What is the definition of a habitable home environment in the care and support eligibility criteria regulations 2015?

Question

Article 2 paragraph 2(f) of the Care and Support (Eligibility Criteria) Regulations 2015 specifies the outcome of maintaining a habitable home environment. What is the definition of ‘habitable’?

Answer 1

There is plenty of case law

Rendlesham Estates plc and others v Barr Ltd – [2015] 1 WLR 3663 summerised the recent caselaw on fitness for habitation and concluded that:

The specific facts in each case should be considered. The property should be considered as a whole rather than defect by defect. So many more minor defects may have a cumulative effect.

For a dwelling to be fit for habitation … it must …

(a) be capable of occupation for a reasonable time without risk to the health or safety of the occupants: where a dwelling is or is part of a newly constructed building, what is a reasonable time will be a question of fact…; and

(b) be capable of occupation for a reasonable time without undue inconvenience or discomfort to the occupants.

The issues in this case causing properties to be unfit for habitation included damp, condensation mould, leaks and “a lift that …. broke down with monotonous regularity”.