Monthly Archive for January, 2011

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The brilliant Baroness

By Dave on 28/01/2011. 10 Comments

Yemshaw v Hounslow LBC [2011] UKSC 3

While my NL colleagues are off partying at a secret location for lunch, I’ve managed to steal a few precious minutes from an appallingly tight deadline (Sinead: if you’re reading this, it’ll be there, honest) to write a paean of praise in honour of Baroness Hale’s judgment in this case.  It is quite simply, as NL has put it, Baroness Hale at the top of her game; a brilliant, tightly argued, academic but practical, rich and deep appreciation of homelessness law and its underlying philosophy (cf the “provocative” approach taken by the Daily Mail in their, ahem, “interesting” comment on the case – … Read the full post

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

Apres moi le deluge

By NL on 26/01/2011. 8 Comments


This may not be the first such announcement, but it is certainly the biggest to date. Birmingham Citizens Advice has had £600,00 per year of Local Authority funding cut. Unless alternative funding of £50,000 per month is found, it will close its generalist advice centres from 11 February 2011.

The CAB claims that they assisted 56,000 people last year and it is the largest CAB in the country. They estimate that they assisted clients in applying for or appeallng decision on income of about £16 million and to manage about £85 million of debt.

Transition funds will not be accessible in time and Birmingham City Council ‘replacement’ funds – … Read the full post

Posted in FLW article and Housing law - All. Tags: , , .

Champerty Returns

By David Smith on 25/01/2011. 0 Comments

Sibthorpe & Morris v LB Southwark [2011] EWCA Civ 25

Champerty and maintenance are two common law doctrines relating to the funding of civil claims. They were, at one time criminal offences, but now survive only as a matter of public policy. Briefly, maintenance is where a third party agrees to fund the suit of another in which he has no legitimate cause or interest whereas champerty is where the third party maintains the suit while also seeking a share of the damages to be awarded. Both of these were commonly used by the wealthy and powerful in the past in order to advance political causes as well as to … Read the full post

Posted in Disrepair and FLW case note. Tags: , , .

A comedy of errors

By NL on 22/01/2011. 0 Comments

Following on from David’s sort of disrepair related post below, here is another one – not directly a disrepair matter but bearing on terms of settlement. It is either quite significant or something of a farce of bad drafting, bad decisions and windfall chasing. As will become clear, I lean towards the second option…

RH v North Tyneside Council v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (HB) [2010] UKUT 462 (AAC)

This was a housing benefit appeal, indeed the second HB appeal related to this matter. The tale is best told chronologically.

RH was a tenant of a landlord (LL) between 24 November 2006 to 18 January 2008 under … Read the full post

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

Fake ID and ‘Just for Men’: High Ct Judges play ‘guess my age’

By J on 21/01/2011. 3 Comments

I suspect that – at some stage – many readers of this blog will have pretended to be older than they actually are, usually to obtain alcohol or to get into night-clubs for the purposes of obtaining more alcohol/meeting the opposite (or same) sex with the hope (often unfulfilled) of nookie. Oh the joys of youth. At a certain point though, we tend to start going the other way and suggesting that we are in fact younger than we actually are. With the ever increasing amounts of gray appearing in my hair, this is a feeling with which I can sympathise.

But, on a more serious note, ascertaining the age … Read the full post

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

Get Set (Off)

By David Smith on 21/01/2011. 0 Comments

Fearns (t/a “Autopaint International”) v Anglo-Dutch Paint & Chemical Company Ltd & Ors [2010] EWHC 2366 (Ch)

This case was mentioned in the most recent edition of Legal Action’s Housing law update but it is not a housing case. Bear with Legal Action and us however as the case is useful. What is in there is a full discussion and explanation of the right of set-off and how it works.

The facts of the case are not particularly important but in summary there was a dispute between the two sides which left the Claimant being owed a sum of money in Pounds Sterling by the Defendant’s while the Claimant owed … Read the full post

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

Forcelux bound (a little bit)

By NL on 21/01/2011. 10 Comments

London Borough of Hackney v Findlay [2011] EWCA Civ 8

This was the Court of Appeal hearing of an appeal on the issues raised in Forcelux v Binnie [2009] EWCA Civ 854 [Our report here], specifically the Court’s ability to set aside a possession order under CPR 3.1(2)(m) as opposed to the more restrictive provisions in CPR 39.3.

Briefly, Mr Findlay was the secure tenant of Hackney. There were rent arrears, amounting to some £1,500 all in, primarily because housing benefit was not in payment for some periods. There are disputed accounts of how Hackney approached this. Hackney brought possession proceedings. Mr Findlay asserts that the only notification … Read the full post

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