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MRS. SHARON JANE OZOUF: G' CATEGORY HOUSING CONSENT
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Lodged au Greffe on 6th July 1999 by Deputy T.J. Le Main of St. Helier
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STATES OF JERSEY
STATES GREFFE
175 1 9 9 9 P . 9 8
Price code: A
PROPOSITION
THE STATES are asked to decide whether they are of opinion -
to r eq u est the Housing Committee to reconsider its decision of 24th February 1999 that it was not minded not to
grant consent under Regulation 1(1)(g) of the Housing (General Provisions) (Jersey) Regulations 1970, as amended, to Mrs. Sharon Jane Ozouf , née Walsh, to allow her to lease or purchase residential property in the Island.
DEPUTY T.J. LE MAIN OF ST. HELIER
Report
Mrs. Sharon Jane Ozouf arrived in Jersey in 1990 and met her Jersey-born husband, who has full residential qualifications to lease/purchase property, in 1991. In 1992 they married and in 1995 their daughter was born. In 1993 they purchased a flat through a share transfer transaction and Mrs. Ozouf and her husband currently own 50 per cent of the shares each.
In early 1998 the marriage was in difficulty, and subsequently Mr. and Mrs. Ozouf decided that they did not want to be in a relationship where their young daughter was involved in arguments etc. Mrs. Ozouf went to the Housing Department fully expecting to get a sympathetic hearing from the Department because of her Jersey-born daughter and the fact that her husband was a Jerseyman whose family had lived in the Island for generations. Mrs. Ozouf was advised on two or three occasions by the Chief Executive of the Housing Department that, as she was now separated, with Mr. Ozouf having left the matrimonial home, she also had to leave the family home as it was a share transfer property where similar regulations to a rental situation apply. If the property had been purchased in joint names (but not through share transfer) she would have been able to reside in that particular property indefinitely. On the advice of the Chief Executive, Mrs. Ozouf moved into a rented property for a three-month period, the maximum time allowed by law, once again fully expecting a sympathetic hearing in her application for consent under Regulation 1(1)(g) (the "hardship" clause) from the Housing Committee, but no progress was made. Towards the end of the three-month period she approached Senator Shenton, who agreed to represent her, and, on 6th April 1999, he obtained from the Housing Committee a two-month extension to the five-month period which will end on 15th August 1999.
Shortly afterwards Senator Shenton's wife became ill, so Mrs. Ozouf approached Deputy Routier and, with Mrs. Ozouf 's permission, we met on 16th June 1999 to discuss the circumstances of the case. Both Deputy Routier and I concluded that Mrs. Ozouf and her daughter merited consideration under the hardship section of the Housing Regulations, so we agreed that I would take on Mrs. Ozouf 's case. After another case in which I represented a constituent at a Review Board hearing, I was approached by a member of the House of Lords, who wrote to me expressing his disquiet at the manner in which politicians and our Housing Regulations are discriminating and treating spouses who have no qualifications but a right to lease or co- purchase with their qualified husband/wife, and the manner their Jersey-born children find themselves treated in Jersey regarding their housing situation – something that is not mirrored in the way Jersey people are treated in the United Kingdom. I am therefore perturbed that the Housing Committee has only allowed Mrs. Ozouf and her Jersey-born daughter to remain in their current accommodation until 15th August 1999 and they must then get out and find alternative accommodation or leave the Island (the words of the Committee). Mrs. Ozouf co-owns her home yet she cannot occupy it unless her estranged husband moves back in, and this is not an option.
Mrs. Ozouf has sole care and custody of her daughter, and I am asking States members to support me in agreeing that, in the interests of natural justice, Mrs. Ozouf be allowed to occupy her current home through the grant by the Housing Committee of a g' category consent. My view is that these Housing Regulations/Laws are unjust and that someone (and that is what I wish to do) should pursue to the end a decision which will be just and morally right for United Kingdom residents, just as a Jersey resident gets when he or she settles in the United Kingdom.
Because of the extreme sensitiveness of what I will wish to say during consideration of this matter I will be asking the States to agree that it be debated in camera.