In another specialist Law Friends exploration of the points where different areas of law intersect, One Pump Court’s Eleri Griffiths presents Immigration for Housing Lawyers, offering an accessible introduction to the topic, in particular looking at:

• Why it’s relevant
• First principles
• Typical lifeline of an immigration application
• Clients with no leave
• Home office powers
• Destitution domestic violence concession
• Data sharing tools
• Modern slavery
• What to look for
• Current issues

Relevant law

1951 Refugee Convention

ECHR (& Human Rights Act 1998), UNCRC, ECAT

Immigration Act 1971

British Nationality Act 1981

Immigration and Asylum Act 1999

Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002

UK Borders Act 2007

Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009

Immigration Act 2014 (‘the hostile environment’)

Immigration Act 2016 (‘Right to Rent’)

Section 185 Housing Act 1996 (as amended) (England).

Section 61 and Sch 2 Para 1 Housing (Wales) Act 2014

Allocation of Housing and Homelessness (Eligibility) (England) Regulations 2006/1294 (Regs 5-6)

Allocation of Housing and Homelessness (Eligibility) (Wales) Regulations 2014/2603 (Regs 5-6)

Eleri specialises in immigration and housing law and acts in cases across the spectrum of both fields in private and public law matters. She is very experienced at engaging with and representing exceptionally vulnerable clients with disabilities or a history of severe trauma. She also represents clients who lack litigation capacity, on instruction by the Official Solicitor or others.

She regularly acts in protection and human rights claims, entry clearance, family reunion, deportation, EEA appeals, cessation of refugee status and exclusion, and securing the release of immigration detainees on bail. She also acts in cases involving issues of modern slavery and human trafficking. As well as representing clients across England and Wales in the First-tier Tribunal, Eleri argues complex points of law in the Upper Tribunal. She also accepts instructions in judicial review claims and civil actions for damages for false imprisonment in immigration detention or related matters.

Eleri has a busy and varied practice including defending possession proceedings and appeals against a possession order, bringing claims for disrepair or discrimination, homelessness appeals, judicial review and claims for unlawful eviction including emergency injunctive relief. Eleri particularly welcomes cases where housing and immigration law overlap and is developing her practice further to include cases involving support for migrants without access to mainstream assistance.

In 2019, Eleri was invited to be a discussion panel member at the Housing Law Practitioners Association conference where she spoke of the challenges of providing excellent client care to a client base in crisis.