Monthly Archive for November, 2008

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Access to benefits and proportionality

By chief on 13/11/2008. 10 Comments

While Zalewska v Department for Social Development (Northern Ireland) [2008] UKHL 67 is not a housing case as such, I hope that many of our readers will still find this useful and interesting.  It is the second time in a fortnight (after RJM) that the House of Lords has had to consider whether UK legislation preventing someone from accessing benefits is compatible with European emanations, but this time it is EC law that is under consideration.

The issue was whether a Polish applicant was entitled to income support having worked in the UK for 12 months without interruption.  She was required to register her periods of employment and had not … Read the full post

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

A Curious Footnote

By Dave on 13/11/2008. 0 Comments

Mich-Onyibe v Wandsworth LBC (04/11/08, CA, judgment currently unavailable otherwise than by way of e-flash from Arden Chambers) is a kind of a curious footnote to homelessness law.  Wandsworth accepted that they owed the full Part VII housing duty to Ms Mich-Onyibe.  they offered her a bedsit on the first floor.  She refused it.  She suffered from a variety of health problems including Type 1 diabetes (involving regular seizures), chronic renal failure and claustrophobia.  She said that she couldn’t use the lift to get to the property because of her claustrophobia and she couldn’t use the stairs because of her medical conditions.   Her daughter, who cared for her, could not … Read the full post

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

It's the end of the world as we know it

By J on 11/11/2008. 5 Comments

Housing Minister Margaret Beckett dropped a bit of a bombshell yesterday.

The Government has (according to leaks in the Times) responded warmly to a CIH proposal to end secure and assured tenancies as we know them and replacing them with fixed term contracts which are reviewed every 3 or so years. The idea would be that, if, at the end of the review period you’re financially able to survive in the private sector (whether as a renter or a owner-occupier) you should be required to do so. In effect, social housing becomes a temporary stop-gap for people, save for those who are too vulnerable to survive in the private … Read the full post

Posted in assured-tenancy, Housing law - All and secure-tenancy. Tags: , , , , .

Retaliatory Eviction Campaign

By NL on 10/11/2008. 11 Comments

As many readers will know, Debbie Crew has been conducting a campaign about retaliatory evictions – typically in private tenancies where a tenant has complained about conditions in the property and got Environmental Health in, and the landlord promptly issues accelerated possession proceedings, to which there is no defence. I first mentioned it back here. Here is Debbie’s blog of the campaign.

Debbie has a lot of support for the campaign, including from ATRO, the tenancy relation officers organisation. She has cross-party parliamentary support, expressed in an Early Day Motion. But the final leap to getting proposals into the forthcoming green paper on private lettings needs a … Read the full post

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

Homelessness fact finding and Article 6

By chief on 07/11/2008. 5 Comments

What more could you wish for on a Friday afternoon that a bit of homelessness law in the Court of Appeal?  Don’t answer that.  Anyway, on to Ali & Ibrahim v Birmingham City Council [2008] EWCA 1228.

Two joined appeals, one on behalf of Ms Ali and one on behalf of Ms Ibrahim, came before the Court of Appeal on whether findings of fact made by a review officer under s. 202 of the Housing Act 1996 and the subsequent right of appeal to the County Court under s. 204 were compatible with Article 6 of the ECHR and particularly the ECtHR decision in Tsfayo v UK [2006] ECHR … Read the full post

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

Housing and Human Rights: Kay in the ECtHR

By J on 05/11/2008. 2 Comments

From the Garden Court bulletin:

The ECtHR has invited the observations of the UK government on the application made by Mr Kay to the ECtHR, following his defeat in the House of Lords in Kay v LB Lambeth [2006] UKHL 10. The Court has asked for observations on the question of whether or not Mr Kay had “the opportunity to have the proportionality of [his] eviction… determined by an independent tribunal in light of the relevant principles under Article 8.”

We’ll all need to keep an eye on this one!… Read the full post

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

Rough Sleepers, Rough Justice

By chief on 04/11/2008. 4 Comments

R (RJM) (FC) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2008] UKHL 63

This House of Lords judgment is now just under two weeks old, but I think it is still worthy of comment here.  It is a discrimination case dealing with benefits and rough sleepers, but has some important implications in much broader areas, at least in my opinion.  It is somewhat tangential to what is usually covered, so we would doubtless welcome comments on whether this is of interest to our astute and loyal band of readers.*

The facts, briefly (some of them from the CA decision):

The claimant, RJM, suffers from mental health problems.  During … Read the full post

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