Monthly Archive for December, 2010

Janus

By NL on 31/12/2010. 3 Comments

JanusTo begin by looking backwards, the numbers for Nearly Legal in 2010 were:

  • Posts: 281 (a post every 1.3 days on average)
  • Average page views per day*: 613
  • Busiest day for page views: 1,737 (3 November)
  • Average page views per month*: 19,995
  • Highest page views per month: 28,638 (This was November –  Pinnock, I think)
  • Subscribers by email and RSS: 987
  • Real Comments: 1,154 (thanks to all who commented)
  • Most commented post: 82 comments – ‘On the Naughty Step – drop the dead donkey redux‘

( * these would both have been higher, but I messed up a detail during the change of servers in January which meant … Read the full post

Posted in Various (non-housing).

There’s no place like HMO

By NL on 28/12/2010. 2 Comments

A brief trip to the Emerald City, or rather Reading, where the Borough Council may have established a record for a fine for breaches of The Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation (England) Regulations 2006 and the Housing Act 2004 Section 11.

An HMO at 33 London Road was found by Reading BC to be in terrible condition, with a leaking and collapsed ceiling, missing and broken windows, a defective fire alarm and a non-functioning WC. Improvement notices went unheeded and the saga had dragged on since 2007.

Millicent Okumo, the former landlord, was prosecuted and found guilty on 12 charges:

Six offences under Regulation 7 – failure to ensure

… Read the full post

Posted in Assured Shorthold tenancy, Disrepair, FLW article, Housing law - All and Regulation and planning. Tags: .

Defamation again: Mrs Clift wins in the Court of Appeal

By Francis Davey on 23/12/2010. 3 Comments

Last year I blogged about Mrs Clift winning a claim for defamation against Slough Borough Council. The facts are in the earlier post. Slough’s appeal was rejected by the Court of Appeal in Clift v Slough Borough Council [2010] EWCA Civ 1171.

While the point in issue was whether Slough could rely on a defence of qualified privilege against Mrs Clift’s claim, I think the decision has wider implications and is therefore relevant to housing practice. The court’s reasoning on Article 8 of the ECHR should be familiar to housing lawyers. In the court’s view, the publication of damaging allegations about Mrs Clift interfered with her rights under … Read the full post

Posted in FLW case note and Various (non-housing). Tags: , , .

Marriage value

By J on 21/12/2010. 3 Comments

McHale v Cadogan [2010] EWCA Civ 1471 is turning into a bit of a Jarndyce v Jarndyce. We noted the first part of the Court of Appeal decision earlier in the year here and ended it by saying:

“The appeal also raised another issue, namely whether the intermediate leasehold interest should be valued using the same assumptions as the freehold interest (i.e. that this was a “no Act world”) with no statutory right to enfranchise. That matter is (a) of general public importance and (b) likely to give rise to a much longer judgment than this one. It was adjourned off to a future date”

Well, that date is … Read the full post

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

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…

By J on 21/12/2010. 8 Comments

… a case about service charges, balancing payments, LVT procedure and precedent.

In Holding and Management (Solitaire) Ltd v Sherwin [2010] UKUT 412 (LC), the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) had to grapple with s.20B, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. This provides:

“Limitation of service charges: time limit on making demands.

(1)           If any of the relevant costs taken into account in determining the amount of any service charge were incurred more than 18 months before a demand for payment of the service charge is served on the tenant, then (subject to subsection (2)), the tenant shall not be liable to pay so much of the service charge as reflects the

… Read the full post

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

And so, farewell…

By J on 14/12/2010. 11 Comments

The MoJ has published the list of county courts that will be closed in England and Wales. The BBC has the full list here (it includes county courts and magistrates’ courts).

The government claims that 85% of people will still be within 1 hr (by public transport) of a county court, but, to paraphrase a great man, that seems to me to be using statistics as a drunken man uses a lamppost – for support, rather than illumination. As anyone who has ever defended a rent arrears possession in, say, Kidderminster County Court can tell you, the odds of your client making it to Kidderminster are remote and the odds … Read the full post

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: , .

Localism Bill published

By Dave on 14/12/2010. 5 Comments

The Localism Bill was published yesterday.  I suppose it might be seen as an exciting time for the housing sector – somebody described it as a potential “paradigm shift” at an event I was at last week – but, whether or not that is correct (and it could yet turn out to be), it has left me profoundly depressed about the processes of government.  The consultation document on which some of the housing provisions are based was published on 22.11.2010 (our discussion) with a closing date of 17.01.2011.  The Bill has been published before the full analysis of responses to that consultation has been completed or, indeed, before … Read the full post

Posted in Allocation, Assured Shorthold tenancy, assured-tenancy, Homeless, Possession and secure-tenancy.
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