Monthly Archive for June, 2011

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Moving time

By J on 20/06/2011. 0 Comments

Ok, this really is a short note. The Residential Property Tribunal Service (those nice people who run LVTs, RACs and RPTs) have announced that, from July 1, 2011, they will be administered by HM Court and Tribunal Service and that, from Spring 2012, they will become the Property, Land and Housing Chamber of the Tribunal system (effectively, the First Tier Tribunal, with appeals to the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber)). This second change will have the effect of closing a very technical lacuna in the routes of appeal provisions in the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, which didn’t fit well with the Tribunals Courts and Enforcement Act 2007.

The announcement … Read the full post

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

Rolling Back the Years: Estoppel and s.2

By David Smith on 19/06/2011. 1 Comment

[Edit NL 21/6/2011. Owing to some enthusiasm by contributors and an evening off editing by me, we have two reports on this case done on the same evening. I've kept both because they present interestingly different approaches to the issues in this case, but I've combined them. First, strictly temporally, is David Smith's version, followed by Dave's]

Whittaker v Kinnear [2011] EWHC 1479 (QB)

This case raises some interesting questions about estoppel and sale.

K sold her property and it’s grounds to W and his business associate, Mr Nichols in 2007, apparently because she could no longer afford it. This sale was at an undervalue and it was intended that … Read the full post

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

Pretty Vacant

By NL on 16/06/2011. 0 Comments

NYK Logistics (UK) Ltd v Ibrend Estates BV [2011] EWCA Civ 683

This is a commercial leasehold case, but it is the first significant case on the meaning of ‘vacant possession’ since about 1946 and is of general application, so here it is.

NYK was the lessee of a warehouse owned by Ibrend. NYK purported to exercise a break clause in the lease on 3 April 2009. Ibrend denied that NYK had validly terminated the cease because it had failed to give vacant possession on 3 April 2009 (a condition of the break clause) and that the lease continued until 25 December 2009, when NYK exercised a further break clause, … Read the full post

Posted in FLW case note, Housing law - All, Leasehold and shared ownership and Licences and occupiers. Tags: .

Not too late but too little

By NL on 16/06/2011. 0 Comments

Southwark LBC  v Barrett Bromley County Court 18/03/2011

A County Court Pinnock case. Unsuccessful but interesting in that it was a transitional case, commenced before the Pinnock judgment, and to the extent that it shows the court using the ‘seriously arguable’ threshold.

Ms Barrett was a non secure tenant, the tenancy being granted under Part VII Housing Act 1996. The landlord served notice to quit after Southwark discharged duty, following Ms B’s refusal of alternative accommodation.

Ms B was advised by a solicitor that there was no defence (this was pre Pinnock) and she did  not attend the hearing. About 4 weeks later, after Pinnock, she applied to set aside … Read the full post

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

Updating (some) leasehold valuations

By J on 15/06/2011. 0 Comments

The government is consulting on two technical (and, I suspect, wholly uncontroversial) changes to leasehold law. The consultation paper is available here, with responses required by September 12, 2011.

Security of tenure

Where a long lease comes to an end by effluxion of time then, subject to certain conditions and exclusions, the former leaseholder is entitled to remain in occupation as an assured tenant: Sch.10, Local Government and Housing Act 1989. One such condition is that the rental value does not exceed £25,000. That, of course, was because an assured tenancy was not originally allowed to have a rental value over £25,000 (Housing Act 1988, Sch.1, para.2). That was … Read the full post

Posted in Housing law - All and Leasehold and shared ownership.

Hand me downs

By NL on 15/06/2011. 2 Comments

Crown Estate Commissioners v Peabody Trust & Poplak [2011] EWHC 1467 (Ch) [link to PDF]

As we noted a while ago, the transfer of the Crown  Estates Commissioners social housing estates to the Peabody Trust had brought about a test case on the status of those tenants who had been regulated tenants (protected or statutory) under Rent Act 1977. This is that case in the High Court. It is also something like the ultimate rebuttal to anyone who suggests housing law is straightforward. Hold on to your amended statute, it is going to be a very bumpy ride.

It was common ground that these tenants ceased to be regulated … Read the full post

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

Middle-aged spread

By NL on 12/06/2011. 6 Comments

Well, there we are, Nearly Legal is 5 years old. In internet terms that is positively middle-aged. We will be keeping a close eye open for any signs of mid-life crisis – whatever the website equivalent of wearing too tight jeans and buying a motorcycle is, maybe taking up with some inappropriately young social networking site and coming over all txt speak.

Still, middle-aged or not, it does seem that Nearly Legal has become something of an institution. In the last year, the site had 270,429 page views, and not all of them from the same few people obsessively reloading pages. That strikes me as a lot for such a resolutely … Read the full post

Posted in Various (non-housing).
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