A MAN who left his home following the breakdown of his marriage and who later lost his job has challenged Dublin City Council’s refusal to place him on its housing list on grounds he and his estranged wife never formally legally separated.
The man says he is entitled to be placed on the housing list as he can no longer afford the accommodation where he has been living since he moved out of his family more than six years ago and has nowhere else to go.
He is seeking a number of declarations and orders from the court, including an order quashing the council’s refusal to put him on the housing list.
Moving the application yesterday, his counsel Siobhán Phelan argued the council was not entitled to refuse to put her client, who it accepted was in need of assistance, on the housing list simply because no formal separation agreement existed between him and his wife.
Her client left the family home in 2004 following the break-up up his marriage, Ms Phelan said. His wife remained at the family home and the husband’s name remained on the joint tenancy agreement for the property.
When his relationship with his wife ended, the man was working and able to make payments for his own accommodation and towards the family home, Ms Phelan said.
However, that situation changed when he lost his job. The man was now in receipt of welfare, including rent allowance, and could not pay for both properties.
As he had no other place to go, he applied to be placed on the council’s housing list but the council informed him he did not qualify because there was no formal separation or divorce order.
Her client and his estranged wife had not entered into a formal separation agreement because their adult children had left home before the separation, Ms Phelan added.
Leave to bring the judicial review proceedings was granted at the High Court yesterday by Mr Justice Michael Peart, who returned the matter to next month.