Monthly Archive for February, 2009

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Possessions up, down and about the same

By NL on 22/02/2009. 0 Comments

The quarterly statistics for quarter 4 2008 on possession claims and orders are out [pdf]. Unsurprisingly, it is the mortgage repossession figures from the CML that got the headlines, being up significantly on 2007 – albeit by less than initially forecast by the CML. The mortgage possession claims issued actually dropped in quarter 4 2008 (although they had been at 38-39,000 for each of the previous three quarters of 2008, as opposed to 33-36,000 per quarter in 2007).

Meanwhile, landlord possessions are pretty static, or even slightly down. On the seasonally adjusted figures:

Mortgage possession
Claims brought
4.2007 – 36,444
4.2008 – 26,008

Order made
4.2007 – 25,555
4.2008 … Read the full post

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

Closure orders

By Dave on 20/02/2009. 4 Comments

There have been two recent cases on closure orders of passing interest. The first, less important case was reported in The Guardian’s Society pages. The hearing appears to have been an amusing event, attended by “a large group of sex workers and their maids”, at which the police officer giving evidence could give no direct evidence that the premises were associated with the occurrence of disorder or serious nuisance to members of the public, because there was no such record on the police computer. Not surprisingly, the judge refused to confirm the Closure order. After the hearing, apparently one of the maids asked the police sergeant “I don’t want … Read the full post

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

Who wants to know?

By J on 20/02/2009. 2 Comments

A very odd case was noted on Lawtel this morning – AB v Leicester City Council, Court of Appeal, 19.2.09. ([2009] EWCA Civ 192)

AB had applied under Part 7, Housing Act 1996, to Leicester City Council (“Leicester”) for assistance as a homeless person. It appears that, at both the s.184 and s.202 stages, the City Council had rejected the application on the basis that AB refused to provide any personal information so as to enable Leicester to properly assess her application. AB had also refused to allow Leicester to make any enquiries from relevant third parties in order that they might gleam information about her history. … Read the full post

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

North of the border

By J on 19/02/2009. 6 Comments

Glasgow City Council v Mitchell [2009] UKHL 11

This is a Scottish appeal to the House of Lords on the scope of the duties owed – if any – by landlords in respect of the behavior of their tenants. It is a difficult case to read (at least for any English lawyers) because of the different terminology used in Scottish cases but – for the joy of housing law – we here at NL have managed to read and translate the case. Here is what is says.

Mr Mitchell and Mr Drummond were the tenants of Glasgow City Council (“Glasgow”). On 31 July 2001, Mr Drummond attacked Mr Mitchell with … Read the full post

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

Dead and gone

By NL on 16/02/2009. 4 Comments

The mopping up of the tail end of tolerated trespasser cases continues.

Barry Austin v LB Southwark [2008] EWCA Civ 66 was the Court of Appeal hearing of the appeal from the High Court hearing we noted earlier.

The issue at stake was whether Mr Austin would have a right to apply under s.85 HA 1985 to vary the possession order made against his late brother Alan in 1987, so as to revive the tenancy, by way of application to the Court under CPR 19.8 to represent his late brother’s estate in the possession proceedings.

If the possession order were varied, Mr Austin would succeed to his late brother’s … Read the full post

Posted in FLW case note, Housing law - All, secure-tenancy, Succession and Tolerated trespasser. Tags: , , .

Something for the weekend

By J on 13/02/2009. 0 Comments

The House of Lords will be giving judgment in Glasgow CC v Mitchell on Wednesday 18 Feb 09 (link is to a .pdf). This is a case that we’ve missed so far but, in essence, is about the scope of the duty of care (if any) owed by a landlord to their tenants in respect of liability for the anti-social acts of another tenant. In outline, it is said that Mr Mitchell complained to Glasgow CC about his neighbour. He told Glasgow not to let his neighbour know about the complaint. Glasgow then interviewed the neighbour and told him about the complaint, naming Mr Mitchell. The neighbour then killed Mr … Read the full post

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

Housing waiting lists in Parliament

By chief on 12/02/2009. 1 Comment

Yesterday the House of Commons debated a Conservative Party motion on housing waiting lists:

That this House notes that social housing waiting lists have increased to a record 1.8 million families, over 4.5 million people, over the last 12 months; recognises that the Government’s policies have reduced levels of house-building across all tenures; cautions that the number of families waiting for social housing is rising to record figures; expresses serious concern that the number of children living in temporary accommodation has doubled in the last 10 years; warns that the Government’s changes to the system for counting rough sleepers will drastically under-estimate the problem; further notes that the Government’s top-down

… Read the full post

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