20.50.2Watts v Stewart [2016] EWCA Civ 1247
It was not incompatible with Articles 8 and 14 ECHR that licensees of almshouses did not have security of tenure
Facts: the occupier of an almshouse sought to defend possession proceedings brought by her charity landlord on the ground that she was a tenant and, also, that her lack of security of tenure was incompatible with Articles 8 and 14 ECHR.
Judgment: the Court of Appeal (Sir Terence Etherton MR, Arden and Lloyd-Jones LJJ) held that the appellant had been granted a license and not a tenancy for the legitimate reason that the charity needed control over the dwelling and its occupation in order to achieve its charitable objectives and the appellant’s lack of security of tenure was objectively justified, for the purposes of Articles 8 and 14 ECHR, by the needs and aims of the charity.