Meaning of “Dwelling”

In my view, in determining whether the accommodation is a residential dwelling one needs to look at the facts of occupation and the agreement of use between landlord and tenant (or licensee) and not the status of the building itself in property (or other types of) law.  Also the HB legislation deliberately uses the term dwelling as distinct from “dwelling house” from the old Rent Acts.

If the claimant has a normal residential lease then that should suffice.  In Uratemp Ventures v Collins the House of Lords decided that a hotel room could be a dwelling and a hotel is quite clearly a commercial property.

You have support from Judge Jacobs in R(H)5/09 where he held that following Miah, it was permissible to take a functional approach to the definition of a dwelling. 

Thus if the claimant has rented the premises, or part of the premises solely in order to live there (as opposed say to rent a garage in orderr to carry out a car repair business , but incidentally sleep there overnight), then the premises would be a dwelling for the pruposes of HB legislation. (CF R v Warrington BC ex p Williams)

In the present case, I don’t think that the fact that the authority had rated the warehouse as being commercial premises ought to be conclusive.  It is the nature of the agreement between the HB claimant and the landlord that is in my view decisive.