Monthly Archive for April, 2010

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Election fever!

By NL on 20/04/2010. 8 Comments

So, while we wait for some more housing judgments (and they are coming. Austin v Southwark LBC is being heard in the Supreme Court tomorrow – Wednesday 21 April – and Thursday, for starters), I thought we might take a look at the main parties’ manifesto commitments on housing and housing law related issues.

The thing is, this won’t take long. Although there is an acknowledged affordable housing crisis going on, it isn’t something which makes a particular impact on the manifestos.

In no particular order…

The Tories give no commitment about spending on social housing, or any proposals for increasing social housing stock. Instead they promise to:

  • introduce a

… Read the full post

Posted in Housing law - All and Various (non-housing). Tags: , , .

On the naughty step – there’s not an app for that

By NL on 20/04/2010. 26 Comments

I have an iPhone (a 3GS, since you asked) and I like it. No, let’s be honest, I love it with a passion bordering on the indecent. So when I saw a note on Roll on Friday which said that there was now an iPhone app “which enables users to access the current text of all UK legislation”, I became terribly excited and headed off to the website for the app, called ‘iLegal’. [Edit: Definitely not to be confused with www.ilegal.org.uk, a fine site for information on legal aid contracting.]

The FAQ page promised “At the time of submission to the App Store, iLegal contained the full text of … Read the full post

Posted in Various (non-housing).

Newham in the news

By Dave on 19/04/2010. 7 Comments

The London Borough of Newham is, without doubt, a hard-pressed council with extremely high levels of housing need, insufficient accommodation of any sort of decent quality to meet that need, and an engaged staff, as anybody who read Ahmad would tell you.  In spite of that, they do some excellent, top notch work.  For example,  when its private sector housing team discovered 11 people living in a pair of two-storey flats, which had been knocked through, above two fast-food takeaways, they served an emergency prohibition order on the private landlord and re-housed the households concerned in emergency accommodation.

But, they can also make what counts as a silly procedural … Read the full post

Posted in Allocation, Disrepair and FLW article.

Access to Justice

By NL on 16/04/2010. 6 Comments

An anecdotal rant, for which forgive me. Sometimes one needs to vent, but this is hardly an unusual situation. It is ‘just’ an example of the viciousness of the public funding boundaries. I’ve combined a few instances in what follows, and changed details for the obvious reasons, but all the salient points are true.

Let us say that I just saw a prospective new client, who had received notice of warrant. She was a Council secure tenant and the issue was rent arrears of several thousand pounds. Various reasons given, but alas none of them involving housing benefit.

The original possession order – which she didn’t have to show me … Read the full post

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

Suitability: Norris v MK

By Dave on 13/04/2010. 0 Comments

In Norris v Milton Keynes Council [2010] EWCA Civ 77 (not on Baili, Lawtel or Westlaw yet, but, thanks to the Chief’s special powers, we have a copy), Rimer LJ considered that a second appeal was merited on two points – LAG, which brought this case to our attention, notes that the appeal was compromised following the grant of permission.

In brief, the facts are that MK offered Ms Norris a property on 30.10.2008 in discharge of their Part VII duties under s 193(7).  MK knew that Ms Norris suffered from epilepsy and needed a shower, rather than a bath, because of the risk of drowning.  The property only had … Read the full post

Posted in FLW case note and Homeless.

Shake your windows

By chief on 12/04/2010. 4 Comments

Craighead v Homes for Islington & LB Islington [2010] UKUT 47 (LC) is a decision of Andrew Trott in the Upper Tribunal on an appeal from the LVT. 21 leaseholders faced bills of £30-40,000 for service charges between 2006 and 2008 relating to “external repairs & decoration, window/roof renewal”. Given the size of the bills it is not surprising that they went to the LVT. The respondents, Islington (the freeholder) and Homes for Islington (HFI – their ALMO), succeeded in the LVT. There were three issues on appeal before Mr Trott, which he identified at [8] as:

  1. Whether the LVT erred in its conclusion that the sources from which the respondents

    2. … Read the full post

Posted in FLW case note, Leasehold and shared ownership and right-to-buy. Tags: , , .

Tenants of defaulting mortgagees

By J on 08/04/2010. 4 Comments

The CLG website is reporting that the Mortgage Repossessions (Protection of Tenants) Bill is now an Act, having received Royal Assent on April 8, 2010.

The press release explains that, where a mortgagor (other than one under a buy-to-let mortgage) has granted a tenancy of the property and fallen into arrears on his mortgage, the court will now have power to postpone any possession order obtained by the mortgage company for up to two months, so as to allow the tenant to make alternative housing arrangements.

Whilst I have no reason to doubt CLG, I’ve not been able to find the final text of the Bill/Act online and so can’t … Read the full post

Posted in FLW article and Mortgage possession. Tags: , .
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