Monthly Archive for April, 2010

Oh Brave New World

By NL on 30/04/2010. 0 Comments

Eastland Homes Partnership Limited v Sandra Whyte 2010 EWHC 695 (QB)

Following Weaver v L&Q and McIntyre v Gentoo, here is a clear indication of the brave new world of public law in which RSLs (sorry, PRHPs) find themselves. It is also an interesting and useful example of a public law defence (gateway b) in action and raises the issue of ‘starter tenancies’ as deployed by PRHPs.

Ms Whyte had a starter tenancy from Eastland Homes. This is an assured shorthold tenancy for six months, after which , typically and according to the agreement in this case, it will either be extended for a further six months or the … Read the full post

Posted in Assured Shorthold tenancy, assured-tenancy, FLW case note, Housing law - All and Possession. Tags: , , .

Adverse Possession in Londonderry

By David Smith on 29/04/2010. 0 Comments

Gallagher v Northern Ireland Housing Executive [2009] NICA 50

With the advent of the Land Registration Act 2002 and its new regime for dealing with adverse possession claims these cases are fast disappearing from the Court’s of England & Wales. Luckily, for those who enjoy the common law position in these matters the old ways still apply elsewhere in the United Kingdom and the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland has just been considering the issues.

In this case the NIHE owned a roughly L-shaped piece of land which G had occupied until about 1966 for the purpose of grazing a variety of animals. G owned a piece of land … Read the full post

Posted in Adverse possession and FLW case note.

Improvements and rent redux

By NL on 27/04/2010. 0 Comments

Hughes v Borodex Ltd. [2010] EWCA Civ 425

This was the Court of Appeal hearing of the appeal from the High Court decision on first appeal that we reported in March 2009. I won’t rehearse the facts, which are in the earlier post, but the issue was whether former long leaseholders who had ended up with an assured tenancy as a result of notice served under the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 should have improvements that they carried out during the period of the lease taken into account in determination of the rent level for the assured tenancy, set by the Rent Assessment Committee after the interim … Read the full post

Posted in assured-tenancy, FLW case note, Housing law - All and Leasehold and shared ownership. Tags: , , , .

In actual occupation but not actually living there.

By NL on 25/04/2010. 0 Comments

Link Lending Ltd v Bustard [2010] EWCA Civ 424

This was an appeal from a mortgage possession case, centred on the issue of whether Ms Bustard could be said to be in actual occupation of the property such that she had an overriding interest under Land Registration Act 2002 (the 2002 Act) s29, schedule 3, paragraph 2 (Land Registration Act 1925 s70(1)(g) as was), which took priority over Link Lending’s charge.

The history is a sorry one and it would be fair to say that Link Lending did not pursue the appeal with an eye to their PR. Ms Bustard was the freeholder and occupant of the property concerned from … Read the full post

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

Was this really a good idea?

By J on 23/04/2010. 0 Comments

I thought that the point of taking a preliminary issue was, well, because the determination of that issue would likely resolve a significant part of the case. In Paddington Basin Developments Ltd and others v West End Quay Estate Management Ltd [2010] EWHC 833 (Ch), the High Court was dealing with a preliminary issue that, frankly, doesn’t seem particularly preliminary.

The case concerns the definition of “qualifying long term agreement” (QLTA) in ss.20 and 20ZA, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. In outline, if a landlord under a long lease enters into a QLTA without having first complied with the various consultation requirements (Service Charge (Consultation Requirements) (England) Regulations 2003) or … Read the full post

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , .

Upper Tribunal consultation

By J on 23/04/2010. 0 Comments

The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) is (and has been since June 1, 2009), the appellate body for, inter alia, the LVT and the RPTS. When it was established, it adopted the existing procedural rules previously used by the Lands Tribunal, its predecessor.

Those rules were, frankly, not very good. In particular, they didn’t make any provision for the possibility of a cross-appeal (as to which, and the problems that caused, see Arrowdell v Coniston Court (North) LRA/72/2005). Accordingly, now that the Upper Tribunal has settled in to its new role, it’s decided to issue some new draft procedural rules for public consultation.

The primary differences between the draft rules … Read the full post

Posted in Uncategorized.

Failed asylum seeker – accommodation, not support

By NL on 21/04/2010. 0 Comments

R (Kiana) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (2010) QBD(Admin) 20/04/2010. [ Note of extempore judgment on Lawtel] [Read the full post

Posted in Community care, Homeless and Housing law - All. Tags: , .
row of sheds footer image
3 pages