Friday Law Report; Housing Authority Entitled to Rescind Decision ; 12 March 2004 Porteous V West Dorset District Council ([2002] EWCA Civ 244) Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Lord Justice Mantell and Sir William Aldous) 4 March 2004

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A LOCAL housing authority was entitled to revisit and change an earlier decision to provide accommodation to a homeless person if its earlier decision had resulted from a fundamental mistake of fact.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal of Andrea Porteous against a decision that West Dorset District Council had been entitled to rescind its decision to offer her accommodation pursuant to section 193 of the Housing Act 1996.

In February 2003, the claimant, a single parent with three children, applied to the defendant local housing authority to be allocated accommodation as a homeless person.

The authority wrote to inform her that she was eligible …