Monthly Archive for November, 2010

Private Sector Accommodation and Part 7

By NL on 30/11/2010. 6 Comments

Hanton-Rhouila v Westminster City Council [2010] EWCA Civ 1334

This was a second appeal from a s.204 Housing Act 1996 appeal which had been dismissed by a Circuit Judge. Mrs Rhoulia had applied as homeless to Westminster and the appeal was of Westminster’s rejection of her application on the grounds that she was not homeless.

The basic facts were that Mrs Rhoulia had applied as homeless after being asked to leave by her sister in law, with whom she and her husband had lived since 2007. Mrs R suffered from cancer, kidney failure and severe depression. On about 28 April 2009, Westminster accepted the application, began enquiries, and offered temporary … Read the full post

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

X & Y v UK?

By NL on 30/11/2010. 0 Comments

Thanks to Chief and with particular thanks to the UK Human Rights blog, we now know that the claimants in X&Y v Hounslow have gone to the European Court of Human Rights.

As you will recall, this was the desperately sad case which, at first instance, looked to establish a duty of care for local authorities to their tenants in certain circumstances. It was overturned at the Court of Appeal (our report) and then permission was refused to go to the House of Lords.

The ECtHR statement of facts and questions to the parties is here. It appears that the claimants are arguing breach of Art … Read the full post

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

Sale and Rent Back – Priority over charge, Round 1

By NL on 29/11/2010. 7 Comments

North East Property Buyers Litigation [2010] EWHC 2991 (Ch) [Not on Bailii yet. Available on Lawtel or Read the full post

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

HHSRS, overcrowding and homelessness

By Dave on 22/11/2010. 0 Comments

I could bore for England about the significance of the HHSRS, overcrowding and their relationship with the definition of homelessness, as well as the significance of the reworked notion of “reasonable to continue to occupy” by the HL in Moran, having worked on this for the last 18 months.  In Hashi v Birmingham CC, reported in this month’s Legal Action, James Stark, to whom we are grateful for the transcript, has succeeded before HHJ Oliver Jones QC in the Birmingham County Court, in arguing that Birmingham failed to take account of the significance of an HHSRS assessment in the context of the definition of homelessness.  This case, although … Read the full post

Posted in FLW case note and Homeless.

Social housing reform “consultation”

By Dave on 22/11/2010. 23 Comments

The heavily trailed (eg here and here), “cataclysmic” consultation paper on social housing reforms has been published by CLG today.  There is much to digest and much will be left to individual PRPs and local authorities to work out.  The “consultation” is limited either to specific groups or to more specific issues without challenging the underlying rationales.  The Localism Bill, shortly to be introduced will carry the main proposed changes.   It also seems like there will be considerable residuary powers retained centrally and locally.  The executive summary of the paper (at pp 9-11) pretty much does the job if that’s all you read, but there are subtler effects and … Read the full post

Posted in Allocation, Assured Shorthold tenancy, assured-tenancy, FLW article, Homeless, Introductory and Demoted tenancies, Possession and Succession.

Legal Aid reforms – Housing

By NL on 15/11/2010. 23 Comments

The Ministry of Justice ‘consultation paper’ on reforms to legal aid to achieve a £350 million cut by 2013/4 is out. It is a hefty 224 odd pages. Responses are required by 14 February 2011

I’ve done what I can to fillet out its significance for housing and social welfare provision, cutting out the various justifications, excuses and statements of purpose. The following are the proposals on which consultation is to take place.

Scope:
Housing – to remain in scope are:

  • homelessness, at least at s.204 appeal (the document is silent on help at s.184 or s.202 stages).
  • possession claims (tenancy and mortgage)
  • disrepair counterclaims to possession claims
  • “serious housing

    • … Read the full post

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

Right to manage: two from the Upper Tribunal

By J on 15/11/2010. 1 Comment

Chapter 1, Part 2, Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 makes provision for “qualifying tenants” of a building to form a company that, in turn, will acquire the right to manage the property from the freeholder. It is largely modeled on the collective enfranchisement provisions of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 (service of claim notice, reply, disputes resolved by the LVT, etc). For present purposes, readers need to note two points:

(a) s.79, 2002 Act requires the notice of claim to be given, inter alia, to the landlord and other tenants. The notice must give a date, being “not earlier than one month” by which … Read the full post

Posted in Housing law - All and Leasehold and shared ownership. Tags: , , , .
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