State Reporting Bureau

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1 ]ax>a3 Qsc 44-1 State Reporting Bureau Queensl Gove'rnment Department of justice Attorney-General Transcript of Proceedings,.-r n r.rnr.g t.7, Copyright in this transcript is vested in the Crown. Copies thereof must not be made or sold without the written authority of the Director, State Reporting Bureau. ; It SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND CIVIL JURISDICTION JONES J Application No 481 of 2002 PAUL RICHARD LAWRENCE GARNAUT Applicant QUEENSLAND HOUSING COMMISSION First Respondent BRIAN SHEEHAN - AREA MANAGER DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING QUEENSLAND POLICE SERVICE ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER ALLAN ROBERTS QUEENSLAND POLICE SERVICE Second Respondent Third Respondent Fourth Respondent CAIRNS..DATE 11/11/2002 /fa c&tkujj^ O? WARNING: The publication of information or details likely to lead to the identification of persons in some proceedings is 6 criminal jffence. This is so particularly in relation to the identification of children who are involved in criminal proceedings or proceedings for heir protection under the Child Protection Act 1999, complainants in criminal sexual offences, but is not limited to those :ategories. You may wish to seek legal advice before giving others access to the details of any person named in these proceedings. 1 1 th Floor, The Law Courts, George Street, Brisbane, Q Telephone: (07) Fax: (07)

2 HIS HONOUR: Before me are two applications, the first by the 1 applicant Paul Garnaut who seeks an order, effectively to restrain the Queensl Housing Commission (which in his application is incorrectly described as Queensl Government Department of Housing) from removing him from premises in which he has lived for quite a long time. 10 The premises are under the control of the Queensl Housing Commission which is, by virtue of section 9 of the State Housing Act, a "corporation sole". The Commission had as its tenant the applicant's mother. She has now left the premises upon leaving duly notified the Commission of the termination of her tenancy. The applicant, in his application, sought some right to stay there on the basis of his being family of a previous tenant. 30 There is no possible basis for him to claim a right to occupy the premises on that ground, so I have come to the view that he is a person who is not entitled to occupy these premises. 40 The steps which the Commission has taken to regain possession of their premises is that, firstly, by letter dated 1st October 2002, the Commission wrote to the applicant advising him that he had no legal right to occupy the premises that he should vacate the premises by the 7th of October The 50 applicant refused to do so instead brought his application to restrain the Commission from removing him. 2 60

3 The evidence discloses that the premises are a three bedroom unit in accordance with the Commission's guidelines a single person under the age of 55 years is not eligible to occupy such premises under the control of the Commission. The type of accommodation which the applicant would be entitled to, if he fits within the guidelines, is a bed-sitter or one bedroom style accommodation. The manner in which he would be provided such accommodation would for him to make an application to this end. He would then be assessed against various criteria as to whether he qualified then he would be placed on a waiting list until suitable accommodation could be found for him. In seeking assistance of the Commission to provide accommodation, of course, any person is in competition with others. According to the affidavit of Mr Fenton filed on behalf of the Commission, there is no guarantee that the applicant, even if entitled to the accommodation, would be provided with such accommodation immediately. In other words, he would not necessarily be allowed to jump the queue but, of course, it is clear that there are also other persons waiting for the style of residence or accommodation which the Commission is seeking to recover from the applicant. What the Commission proposes before me is that if they are successful in this application, they would be prepared to allow a delay in the operation of the order to remove the applicant for him either to seek alternative accommodation, or 3

4 for them to find accommodation for him which would not have the result of seeing him ejected from his present residence without anywhere to go. Given that there has to be some determination of this impasse, it seems to me proper to accede to the Commission's request that the matter be dealt with on the basis that they will agree to a delayed operation of the Court's order. That will give the applicant time to seek other accommodation of the kind alternatives which I have mentioned. The concern, however, is that there is a record of his health not being good in the past that limits his capacity to make the search for other accommodation. For that reason I will grant the three weeks' delay, but I will include a provision that the parties have liberty to apply for an extension of that order should that be made necessary by the applicant lacking capacity to make the search of the kind which is being outlined. So I will find that the applicant has no right to occupy the Commission's premises located at 24B De Jarlais Street, Earlville in the State Queensl. I find that the Commission is entitled to recover possession of the said premises I order that the applicant vacate the premises on or before 4.00 p.m. on 2nd December I I dismiss the application made by the applicant dated the 4th of October I order that the applicant pay the 4

5 Commission's cost of incidental to this application, to be assessed on a stard basis. I give each party liberty to apply upon giving two days' notice to the other party. 5