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Section 204A: Section 204(4): appeals

Housing Act 1996 · 1996 c. 52View on legislation.gov.uk

Part VII: Homelessness: England

This section applies where an applicant has the right to appeal to the county court against a local housing authority's decision on a review.

If the applicant is dissatisfied with a decision by the authority—

not to exercise their power under section 204(4) ("the section 204(4) power") in his case;
to exercise that power for a limited period ending before the final determination by the county court of his appeal under section 204(1) ("the main appeal"); or
to cease exercising that power before that time,

he may appeal to the county court against the decision.

An appeal under this section may not be brought after the final determination by the county court of the main appeal.

On an appeal under this section the court—

may order the authority to secure that accommodation is available for the applicant's occupation until the determination of the appeal (or such earlier time as the court may specify); and
shall confirm or quash the decision appealed against,

and in considering whether to confirm or quash the decision the court shall apply the principles applied by the High Court on an application for judicial review.

If the court quashes the decision it may order the authority to exercise the section 204(4) power in the applicant's case for such period as may be specified in the order.

An order under subsection (5)—

may only be made if the court is satisfied that failure to exercise the section 204(4) power in accordance with the order would substantially prejudice the applicant's ability to pursue the main appeal;
may not specify any period ending after the final determination by the county court of the main appeal.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.