Monthly Archive for June, 2008

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Scraping a second

By NL on 24/06/2008. 10 Comments

I managed to miss an anniversary, a bit like my own birthdays these days. Nearly Legal was two years old on the first of June. Two years! That is positively middle aged in internet years, fittingly making the blog roughly as old as I am.

It has been quite a trip. I can safely say that I didn’t plan what Nearly Legal has turned into at all, nor did I expect what was always going to be a very niche blog to get the range of readers and calibre of commentors that it has. For all who comment and email, my thanks. It is, quite honestly, what keeps the blog … Read the full post

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

And another housing law blog

By NL on 21/06/2008. 2 Comments

The world domination plan is on schedule as another housing law blog starts up…

A warm welcome to ‘The snail in that legal bottle‘, by Ethan, a ‘housing sector legal person’.

Unfortunately, by way of greeting I popped over late last night and left an inadvertently pompous hatchet job in a comment to a post. I was under the initial, but brief, impression I was doing friendly discussion. Well done me.… Read the full post

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

LSC to grade advocates?

By NL on 21/06/2008. 3 Comments

By an unexpected route, the following landed in my inbox. I haven’t heard anything about this, nor had some friends in Criminal so this may be news. What is clear is that the Legal Services Commission are seeking to introduce competence assessments for Criminal Defence advocacy, both barristers and solicitor-advocates, with a pilot scheme to take place in 2009. Note the inclusion of an appeals process in the outline scheme. This is clearly intended to play a role in whether individual advocates receive legal aid funding or not.

The LSC email in full:
The LSC is seeking expressions of interest from suppliers with the
experience and capability to provide consultancy … Read the full post

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

Deficiency in a decision

By NL on 19/06/2008. 4 Comments

London Borough of Lambeth v Johnston [2008] EWCA Civ 690 is an appeal to the Court of Appeal from a County Court s.204 appeal.

The brief facts – the Claimant applied to Lambeth as homeless in September 2004. He told the officer he had an alcohol problem Lambeth put him into temporary accommodation. In September 2005, with no further interview or enquiries, Lambeth made a s.184 decision that he was not vulnerable.

At s.202, this was upheld, despite new evidence from the Claimant’s drug dependency agency that he was Class A dependant and alcoholic. He was now on a treatment programme but in a vulnerable condition. There was also … Read the full post

Posted in FLW case note, Homeless and Housing law - All. Tags: , , , .

I give in.

By NL on 18/06/2008. 3 Comments

I have ignored this question, then I have mocked it. But dammit, the google searches for ‘what is Anor in legal terms’, or variants thereof, keep flooding in. They are now up to about 15 or more a week.

So I give in. Clearly absolutely nobody is able to deduce meaning from context any more and I must pander to the new google literalists.

Anor in legal terms is an abbreviation for ‘another’, as in X and another v Literal Borough Council.

Are you all happy now? Doesn’t it seem suddenly obvious? Just don’t expect a great legal career given that you actually had to ask.… Read the full post

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

Children Act – housing and education

By NL on 17/06/2008. 0 Comments

C, R (on the application of) v London Borough of Lambeth [2008] EWHC 1230 (Admin) is, in the end, mainly concerned with education, but there is quite a bit of interest to housing people.

The issue was the duties owed to the Claimant under s.23 and s.24 Children Act 1989.

The Claimant had been in care with Lambeth. Shortly before her 18th birthday, Lambeth gave her tenancy of a one bed flat. The next year, after suffering a serious sexual assault at the flat, C left to stay with friends and a former foster mother. In 2207, she was briefly street homeless, before the application for Judicial Review was made. … Read the full post

Posted in Community care, FLW case note and Housing law - All. Tags: , , , , .

HB as rent for RTB

By NL on 16/06/2008. 1 Comment

Hanoman v London Borough of Southwark [2008] EWCA Civ 624

Where a local authority landlord has failed to respond to a tenant’s notice in time under the Right to Buy procedure, the tenant can serve an ‘operative notice of delay’ under s.153A(5) Housing Act 1985. The effect of this notice is that the landlord must deduct from the purchase price an amount based on the rent paid during the period of the delay (s.153B).

Does housing benefit, whether as payment, or as rebate on rent payable to local authority, count as rent for the purposes of s.153B?

Simple answer – yes. S.153B makes no prescription as to the source of rent … Read the full post

Posted in Benefits, FLW case note, Housing law - All and right-to-buy. Tags: , , , .
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