It is submitted at the outset that the condition requiring removal of the thumb-turn lock from the communal living room door is not dictated by any safety requirement whatsoever<\/strong>\u2014not by fire safety law, not by tenant safety duties, not by statutory standards, and not by any recognised national guidance. As the detailed grounds below demonstrate, the condition has no legislative basis, no technical justification, no support in industry practice, and no factual grounding in the circumstances of this property<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Crucially, this type of overreaching condition has already been struck off by the First-tier Tribunal in previous cases<\/strong> where councils attempted identical forms of regulatory overreach, including the well-established authorities such as Leeds CC v Hanif<\/em>, Stoke-on-Trent CC v Mohamed<\/em>, and the FTT London 2019 lock-removal case<\/strong>, all of which reaffirm that a licensing authority cannot exceed its statutory remit or create conditions unsupported by legislation or safety necessity<\/strong>.<\/p>\n In short, this is not a safety-driven condition<\/strong>, but an irrational, ultra vires, and previously repudiated attempt at overreach<\/strong>, wholly inconsistent with the statutory purpose of ss.64\u201367 Housing Act 2004. For these reasons, and those set out in detail below, the condition cannot lawfully stand and must be struck out.<\/p>\n The licence condition that:<\/p>\n \u201cThe lock shall be removed from the ground floor front living room door so that the room can be accessed at all times by all occupiers\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n is:<\/p>\n1. Summary<\/h3>\n
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