Monthly Archive for September, 2007

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Disability and tenancy – More on Malcolm

By NL on 15/09/2007. 19 Comments

Table of contents for Disability Discrimination

  1. Catching up – Disability Discrimination and possession
  2. Disability and tenancy – More on Malcolm
  3. On impotent landlords and disability.
  4. Disability discrimination – the comparator
  5. DDA and mandatory possession
  6. S v Floyd and a disability defence
  7. Adjourning pending Malcolm in the Lords
  8. And now Malcolm!
  9. Malcolm in brief
  10. Comments on Malcolm in the Lords

I posted on Lewisham v Malcolm ten days ago. Since then a couple of commentors have raised issues and Tessa has posted on the implications of the case at Landlord Law. So it seemed worth a further look. The caveat is that what follows is my understanding of the Judgment … Read the full post

Posted in Housing law - All and Possession. Tags: , , , , .

Quantum in Disrepair

By NL on 13/09/2007. 10 Comments

point at the problemI’ve been meaning to post on this for a while and have been prodded into life by quite a few searchers on the topic. The reason I’ve been delaying is that, frankly, it is a bit of a sod. Unlike the carefully calculated, quantified, actuarialised and tabulated scales of Personal Injury claims, disrepair quantum is at best foggy, at worst an aporia.

There are reasons for this, mostly the lack of cases taken to trial, and with it lack of detailed ‘authorised by the higher courts’ means of assessment. It is also because the heads of damages aren’t as clear, being allegedly contractual but with a vague importation of … Read the full post

Posted in Disrepair and Housing law - All. Tags: , , , .

Possession claims dropping? Not all.

By NL on 11/09/2007. 0 Comments

The latest figures, up to Quarter 2 2007 are available on the Ministry of Justice site, link to the PDF.

The figures show quite a drop in the Q2 figures for non-accelerated possession claims issued (including claims by Councils and Housing Associations) compared to Q2 2006:

Q2 2006 32,465
Q2 2007 28,661

The figures for possession orders made also show a drop, although smaller both absolutely and proportionately:

Q2 2006 21,807
Q2 2007 19,542

This may show the effect of the Rent Arrears Pre-Action Protocol. Hopefully compliance with the protocol means less need for claims to be issued and/or stops claims being issued merely as ‘enforcement’ for agreed arrears … Read the full post

Posted in Housing law - All and Possession. Tags: , , .

Obvious filler 5

By NL on 09/09/2007. 2 Comments

Time for another in the intermittent series of startling insights into human life afforded by the search terms that somehow brought people to this blog. Also known as a lazy post on a Saturday night.

By the way, the campaign to make Nearly Legal the blog of choice for anyone searching for ‘Sally Field naked’, which I started in October 2006, has had remarkable success, given that I haven’t actually done anything at all. I am humbled to find that Nearly Legal is now the fifth link on the first page of Google’s results. Hell, people pay good money for that kind of placement. And the eager searchers do … Read the full post

Posted in Various (non-housing). Tags: .

Yossarian -v- the Legal Services Commission

By NL on 07/09/2007. 0 Comments

A few more details on R(Southwark Law Centre) v Legal Services Commission [2007] EWHC 1715 (Admin), which I mentioned a few days ago.

First, it is worth noting that Mr Justice Collins effectively said that ‘net rent’ for the purposes of the LSC entitlement assessment included any payments the occupier was obliged to make to be able to live in their home. This includes instalments towards arrears, e.g. under a possession order or agreed between landlord and tenant. This means that the assessment is now more ‘generous’ than the one most people assumed to be the case before the LSC started the ‘rent actually paid’ nonsense. We then … Read the full post

Posted in Various (non-housing). Tags: , , .

Tenants' Rights – The Book

By NL on 05/09/2007. 0 Comments

I have finally laid my hands upon a copy of the new book by Tessa Shepperson, the maestro of Landlord law blog and old friend of this blog. The book has been out since early summer, so apologies to Tessa for my belatedness.

Tenants’ RightsGiven this intro, I can hardly pretend to a fully objective review. But ‘Renting: The Essential Guide to Tenants’ Rights‘[1] is certainly well worth noting here, (despite the – let’s be honest – not wonderful cover design, for which clearly Tessa is in no way responsible).

It is important that this is not a specialist’s text. Tessa has set out to produce a clear, comprehensible … Read the full post

Posted in Assured Shorthold tenancy and Housing law - All. Tags: , , .

Catching up – s.21 and tenants' deposits

By NL on 04/09/2007. 0 Comments

A very interesting article by Francis Davey in September’s Legal Action about the Housing Act 2004. The whole piece rewards a read, but two bits caught my eye. We don’t do that many private tenancy possession defences, relatively speaking, so these were new to me.

Where a shorthold assured tenancy started after 6 April 2007, i) the deposit must be held by the landlord in one of the approved tenancy deposit schemes, within 14 days of receiving it and ii) the landlord is to give prescribed information about this to the tenant.

Now, where the landlord fails to do either or both of these, the landlord may not give a … Read the full post

Posted in Assured Shorthold tenancy, Deposits and Housing law - All. Tags: , , , , , .
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