Monthly Archive for November, 2009

Shop an unlawful sub-tenant, win £500

By NL on 30/11/2009. 10 Comments

The Government has decided to have a campaign against unlawful sub-tenancies of social housing, or rather against the unlawful landlords and tenants both. The estimated figures are that between 50,000 and 200,000 social properties are occupied by unauthorised occupants and, given the utter lack of social housing and a waiting list estimated at at least 1.8 million households, they want something done.

What is to be done is apparently to pay tenants £500 to shop an unauthorised neighbour. M

Local authorities are “expected to target 8,000 tenancy cheats in a first wave of investigations this week across 145 local authorities after a trawl of council records by the Audit Commission”. That … Read the full post

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

Each had a wooden horse

By chief on 29/11/2009. 1 Comment

R (A) v Croydon & R (M) v Lambeth UKSC [2009] 8

This was an appeal heard by the House of Lords over the course of four days in July, but with judgment delivered by the new Supreme Court.  We reported the Court of Appeal’s judgment here.  At issue was to what extent the courts could review the decision of a local authority that an individual is over the age of 18.  On one view this case turns on a narrow point about construction of the Children Act 1989 and does not really need a lengthy examination on a housing law blog.  I’m going to suggest that there is … Read the full post

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

An Englishman's room is his castle

By NL on 29/11/2009. 0 Comments

Thomas v Director of Public Prosecutions QBD October 23, 2009 (apparently only reported in the Times, although I swear I saw it somewhere else too).

This was an appeal by way of case stated against conviction for obstructing a police officer. Mr Thomas lost his appeal, but along the way, the High Court reached some conclusions about the status of rooms in this accommodation for the homeless.

The question was whether the police, having attended to arrest another occupant, had the power to search the Defendant’s room. The property was a three bed flat. It was used as temporary accommodation on a daily basis. The terms of the individual licences … Read the full post

Posted in FLW case note, Housing law - All and Licences and occupiers.

Seen anything strange lately?

By NL on 27/11/2009. 2 Comments

I’ve had an email from a reader who has found that the Nearly Legal URL is redirecting to a spam blog. I can’t replicate this behaviour, but has anyone else seen it? I’m checking to see if we’ve been hacked, but I’d be grateful if anyone could confirm whether they have seen it too – particularly if trying to get to Nearly Legal through a search engine (google, yahoo etc.)… Read the full post

Posted in Various (non-housing).

Child in Need, Indeed

By chief on 26/11/2009. 2 Comments

The Supreme Court has handed down judgment in the case of R (A) v Croydon and R (M) v Lambeth [2009] UKSC 8.  This is an important decision about the duty of LAs under s.20(1) of the Children Act 1989 to “provide accommodation for any child in need within their area”.  We will look at this judgment in more detail soon [edit: see here], but for now what you need to know is:

  1. The courts can review whether a person is a “child” for the purposes of the Children Act 1989, this is a separate question to whether they are “in need”;
  2. Ordinary domestic judicial review can be adapted

    3. … Read the full post

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

Mortgage possession defeated by constructive trust

By Francis Davey on 25/11/2009. 5 Comments

An opportunity to indulge in schadenfreude at the expense of a mortgage lender is offered by HSBC v Dyche [2009] EWHC 2954 (Ch) where a claim for possession by a mortgagee was dismissed because the actual occupant of the property was beneficiary under a constructive trust. The decision gives an example of the doctrine of the common intention constructive trust, and touches on the preconditions for overreaching to occur.

I’ll take a slightly different approach to the court and discuss each issue as it arises in the chronology.

the Constructive Trust

In 1976 Mr and Mrs Collelldeval (the C’s) moved into the property, which they held on trust for themselves … Read the full post

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

Homeless reviews and fact finding in the Supreme Court

By NL on 23/11/2009. 1 Comment

We’ve been told that Ali & Ibrahim v Birmingham City Council (now Ali, Ibrahim and Tomlinson v BCC) was heard in the Supreme Court today, 23 November, and continues tomorrow. Our report on the Court of Appeal judgment ([2008] EWCA 1228) is here. The issue is whether Housing Act 1996 s.202 reviews are Article 6 compliant. Judgment now awaited – this should be significant, either way.… Read the full post

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