Monthly Archive for June, 2010

The Monk habit

By NL on 30/06/2010. 0 Comments

Lana Wilson v London Borough of Harrow [2010] EWHC 1574 (QB)

This was the combined permission/appeal hearing in the High Court from a first instance hearing by a CJ of a defence to a possession claim based on an NTQ served by a joint tenant. The principal ground of appeal was a further argument that the rule in LB of Hammersmith and Fulham v Monk [1992] 1 AC 478 was in breach of Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

We have been here before, a couple of times. R(Husband) v Solihull; Dixon v Wandsworth. (Links to our reports). The issue is whether the rule that … Read the full post

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

Housing Benefit limits

By NL on 28/06/2010. 22 Comments

You’ve probably already seen this, but new upper limits on housing benefit rates are to be introduced from next April (2011).

For a three bed house, the upper limit will be £340 per week
For a four bed house, the upper limit will be £400 per week

LHA will be limited to between £250 and £400 a week depending on property size. LHA rates will be set using the bottom 30 per cent of rates instead of the median and they will be linked to the consumer prices index rather than the retail prices index, leading to smaller increases.

In London, this is likely to have a very significant impact … Read the full post

Posted in Allocation, Benefits, FLW article, Housing law - All and secure-tenancy. Tags: , , .

All mimsy were the borogoves

By NL on 28/06/2010. 15 Comments

The Jabberwock of the tenancy deposit scheme came whiffling again, in the tulgey wood of Northampton County Court. This time it was the clause that catch to beware of. And there’s a disrepair claim in there too.

Paula O’Brien v Jacqueline Jones & Andrew Alexander (T/A Belvoir Huntingdon). Claim No 9KG00335 12/02/2010 [On Lawtel for some reason]

Ms O’B (hereafter B) was the assured shorthold tenant of Ms J (hereafter J), whose managing agent was Mr A (T/A BH) (hereafter ‘the agent’). The tenancy was ended by agreement on 19 December 2008. B had withheld the last two months rent due to her concerns about the condition of the … Read the full post

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

The quietus of the tolerated trespasser

By NL on 23/06/2010. 10 Comments

Austin v London Borough of Southwark [2010] UKSC 28

It has been a long story for Mr Austin and a long, long, long story for the tolerated trespasser. But this Supreme Court judgment should be the last time the Supreme Court is troubled by the legacy of Thompson v Elmbridge Borough Council [1987] 1 WLR 1425 and Burrows v Brent London Borough Council [1996] 1 WLR 1448. Further, it is, in many ways, an epitaph for the ‘anomalous’, ‘dubious’, ‘oxymoronic’ concept of the tolerated trespasser – and ‘all of this nonsense’ could have been avoided (quotes from Baroness Hale, on which more below). This is a judgment worth reading in … Read the full post

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

Farewell, then, to “Roof”

By Dave on 21/06/2010. 1 Comment

The last issue of Shelter’s excellent Roof magazine has landed on my desk today.  It’s been a mainstay of my preoccupation with housing issues for the past 20 years, and it would be wrong to let its passing go without a short note.  The last issue is a fitting tribute, reminding us of the magazine’s success in getting housing issues onto the agenda and its dogged pursuit of those issues (remember Nigel Pollitt’s breaking of the Westminster “homes for votes” scandal, Janet Ford’s highlighting of the arrears crisis in 1991, as well as articles from before my time (ie the 1970s) about housing need?).  There are some fantastic reflections on … Read the full post

Posted in FLW article, Housing law - All and Various (non-housing).

A farewell to the pink campervan?

By NL on 18/06/2010. 5 Comments

It appears that the Tenant Services Authority is living on borrowed time and is on route to being the shortest lived social housing regulator ever, having got its full powers only in April 2010. There will probably be an announcement at the Chartered Institute of Housing conference, next week.

See this interview with Grant Shapps, Housing Minister, which strongly suggests that the oversight of housing association governance and finances will go to the Homes and Communities Agency, while the tenant services regulatory aspect will go… well nowhere much:

[T]he framework developed by the TSA to ensure the provision of excellent tenant services will remain – indeed, Mr Shapps claims

… Read the full post

Posted in Housing law - All and Regulation and planning. Tags: , , .

Contracting out homelessness reviews: Technical issues

By Dave on 18/06/2010. 3 Comments

With thanks to Robert Latham, we have the transcript of an interesting section 204 homelessness appeal brought by Ms Shacklady against Flintshire CC in the Mold County Court before HHJ Gareth Jones (07.05.2010).  The substance of the appeal concerned Ms Shacklady’s appeal against Flintshire’s decision to exercise its discretion to use the local connection provisions of the 1996 Act to refer her back to Conwy CBC and other matters; but HHJ Jones never got to the substance because there was an important procedural point taken by Ms Shacklady concerning the fact that Flintshire had contracted out the review of their decision to a Mrs Ros Tyrrell, described in correspondence as … Read the full post

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