Right to buy

Mr Hanoman, a secure tenant, served the council with a notice claiming the right to buy his home (form RTB1) on 14 November 1999. By law, the council should have responded by 12 December 1999 admitting or denying his right with form RTB2. Instead, the council wrote to him on 17 January 2000 seeking more information about his claim, in particular identification evidence.

When he failed to reply, because he did not receive the letter, the council treated his application as withdrawn and took no further action on it.

Two years later, he brought a claim in the county court seeking to enforce his right to buy. His case was dismissed by the local judge and he appealed.

A High Court judge allowed his appeal. The judge decided that the council had been in breach of its legal duty to respond to the claim within four weeks.

Nothing in the right to buy’s legal regime permitted the council to then impose a requirement for information from the tenant and to treat a failure to respond as amounting to a withdrawal of the claim. Hanoman was entitled to enforce his right to buy.