Monthly Archive for December, 2010

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Adverse Possession: Articles 1, 6 and freedom of speech?

By NL on 13/12/2010. 0 Comments

Agnes Ofulue v the United Kingdom Application no. 52512/09 ECtHR

This admissibility hearing was the culmination of a long, long story. We reported the Court of Appeal judgment and the House of Lords judgments. The very abbreviated history was that in 2005, the Ofulues had lost a possession claim for a property on the basis that the Bosserts, who had lived in the property since 1981, had gained title through adverse possession.

The Ofulues appealed on the basis that the law on adverse possession constituted a breach of Article 1, Protocol 1,and Art 6, and further that i) the Bosserts had acknowledged that they were tenants in a defence … Read the full post

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

Unwanted Gifts

By NL on 10/12/2010. 4 Comments

Keeping the seasonal theme, we are having a bit of a problem with unwanted gifts, specifically automated spam comments. For the last few days – and ongoing – there has been a particularly heavy flood of them. We usually get about 200 a day, but that has gone up to over 450 and increasing. Nearly all are caught by the automatic defences and the rest are quickly mopped up, but the problem is that they come in waves. When a flood is going on, you may find the site slow, or even temporarily unavailable.

I’ve also given up going through the caught spam to weed out any genuine comments wrongly … Read the full post

Posted in Various (non-housing).

Tis the season for giving (2)

By J on 10/12/2010. 3 Comments
As you all know, we six merry souls write NL because, well, we love housing / landlord and tenant law. Our fearless leader has even been described as a “nut”* for the subject. We’re glad that we can produce something that people find useful but, even that is secondary to the fact that we just enjoy writing about housing law.
It occurs to us, however, that you might find some value in what we do. We don’t want your money** but there are plenty of people who do. Accordingly, we’ve decided to ask that, if any of our readers find value in what we produce, they make a donation to … Read the full post
Posted in Various (non-housing). Tags: , , .

Tis the season for giving (1)

By J on 10/12/2010. 2 Comments

Leeds and Yorkshire Housing Association v Vertigan, Court of Appeal, December 9, 2010 (Elias LJ, Norris J, Lawtel note only)

Vertigan was the assured shorthold tenant of the claimant. Over the years, it seems that he had done a number of things of which his landlord disapproved, including: (a) sawing through the floorboards to access a cellar, which was not demised to him; (b) damaging padlocks placed by the landlord to exclude him from certain areas; (c) erecting a metal structure outside his flat that he refused to remove; and, (d) allowing his dogs to foul the communal areas.

The landlord issued possession proceedings and the judge granted an … Read the full post

Posted in ASB, Assured Shorthold tenancy and Housing law - All. Tags: , , , .

No recovery of accidental overpayments

By NL on 09/12/2010. 0 Comments

The Child Poverty Action Group v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2010] UKSC 54

Just a quick note to confirm that the Supreme Court has unanimously upheld the Court of Appeal decision (reported here) that the Secretary of State cannot use common law claims to recover overpayments of social security benefits where the overpayment is by reason of acccident or error on the part of the benefit agency. The only mechanisms for recovery are those set out in section 71 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992. That only covers cases where the claimant has “misrepresented, or failed to disclose, any material fact and in consequence of … Read the full post

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

Borscht with your Royale?

By J on 08/12/2010. 0 Comments

Continuing the food-related nature of our posts on Art. 8, ECHR cases (see, inter alia, here and here) we’ve got a bit of cold borscht from Ukraine in the case of Kryvitska and Kryvitskyy v Ukraine App. No. 30856. Like a bowl of borscht, I’m not quite sure what to make of it.

Relevant domestic law

Under Ukrainian law:

(a) an agreement concluded by a citizen who is unable to understand the meaning of his actions is capable of being annulled by the court (Art. 55, Civil Code of 1963);

(b) where a person dies intestate then his property passes to the State (Art 555, 1963 Code); and… Read the full post

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

New evidence of disrepair – Ladd v Marshall revisited

By NL on 06/12/2010. 0 Comments

Herelle v South London Family Housing Association Ltd, CC/2009/PTA/0737 (High Court Chancery Division) 20 July 2010 [Not reported elsewhere]

Perhaps apropos of J’s recent comments on RSLs  ’fighting daft disrepair cases‘, we have an update on what was a County Court disrepair claim against an RSL that we first reported here.

We are informed that Ms Herelle initially appealed that judgment to the High Court on, amongst other grounds, the basis that:
i) the Judge was wrong to consider that the disrepair was localised to specific areas in the flat and had not exacerbated condensation throughout the flat
ii) the Judge had ignored the expert’s evidence … Read the full post

Posted in assured-tenancy, Disrepair, FLW case note and Housing law - All.
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