Legal landmark for community care of former psychiatric patients.

A recent judgment of the Lands Tribunal has set an important precedent which should decrease the potential for restrictive covenants to thwart the development of the government's care in the community programme. In 1989 a Worthing couple were permitted to convert their own house into a residential care home for former psychiatric patients. Judge B Marder, QC, ruled on 12 January 1993 that the "public interest" outweighed a contractual stipulation that the property should be used only for residential, non-business purposes. This is a radical change in the Lands Tribunal's view of mental illness.