Section 193 of the Housing Act 1996 is the full housing duty owed by local housing authorities to some homeless. Subsection (1) applies where an applicant is (i) homeless, (ii) eligible for assistance, (iii) in priority need, and (iv) not homeless intentionally. Subsection (2) then provides that, absent reference to another authority, the authority shall secure that accommodation is available for occupation by the applicant. The discharge of this duty is subject to a number of technical requirements. Some of these requirements have been considered by the Court of Appeal in NORTON v HARINGEY LBC (2022) EWCA Civ 1340. In that case the question was whether Haringey had discharged the Section 193(2) duty by making a private sector rented offer of accommodation.
The Court of Appeal held that Haringey had not discharged its duty for each of three reasons : (1) the offer had not told the applicant of the effect of Section 195A(2), as required by Section 193(7AB)(c); (2) Haringey had not satisfied itself that he was able to bring any obligations regarding their existing accommodation to an end, as required by Section 193(7F)(ab) and Section 193(8); and (3) Haringey had not inspected the property or received a report about it from a reliable source before approving the offer, contrary to the suitability requirements of Article 3 of the Homelessness (Suitability of Accommodation) (England) Order 2012.