Author Archive for chief

You’re ‘avin’ a giraffe

By chief on 02/12/2011. 0 Comments

Francis v LB Southwark [2011] EWCA Civ 1418

This was a brave attempt to try and get something out a local authority’s mistaken denial of a right to buy application, but it was not one which the Court of Appeal had any truck with.

Mr Francis was a tenant of the London Borough of Southwark. It seems that the course of his tenancy had not been a smooth one. Rent arrears would accrue, but eviction would be staved off. In March 2003 Mr F submitted a right to buy application in respect his flat on the Acorn Estate.

Southwark responded in September 2003, with a Housing Act 1985, s.124 notice … Read the full post

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

Pass me down the wine

By chief on 30/09/2011. 20 Comments

The number of letters published in The Guardian on the topic of the law on squatting has now reached two and can therefore be fairly described as an “exchange”.

We have already noted Mike Weatherley MP’s letter to The Guardian and I urge you all to read that post. It is a sensitive, sensible, passionate and highly informed piece of writing. What follows is almost certainly not. It should only be considered for a bit of weekend light relief, probably with a glass, or more, of wine to hand – it was certainly written that way.

With that caveat, our starting point has to be the letter published at … Read the full post

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

That’s not the way to do it

By chief on 12/08/2011. 0 Comments

Zolotareva v Russia (App. No. 15003/04)

With a hat-tip to the Garden Court bulletin, here is a decision of the European Court of Human Rights on the enforcement of an eviction. Ms Zolotareva lived in a municipally owned flat with her son, ex-daughter-in-law and grandchild. She thought that could no longer all live together (I refer you to the “ex” in the last sentence and possibly also the “in-law”) and commenced proceedings for the eviction of her son’s ex-wife. She in turn counter-claimed, asking the court to order that they all get rehoused elsewhere.

The court sided with the ex-wife and ordered not only that she and her … Read the full post

Posted in FLW case note, Housing law - All, Possession and Unlawful eviction and harassment. Tags: , .

Cleaning Up

By chief on 26/05/2011. 0 Comments

You may recall, almost two years ago now, we reported on the case of Defence Estates v L [2009] EWHC 1049 (Admin), under the title “Something of a mess”. The title was a reference to a comment of Collins J during the course of discussions after his judgment that three House of Lords’ decisions (Qazi, Kay & Doherty) had “left the law frankly in something of a mess”. This comment was subsequently picked up Lord Neuberger in his keynote address to SHLA’s annual conference in 2009. It was Lord Neuberger who then attempted to clean up some of the mess when giving the judgment of the … Read the full post

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

You win some, you lose some

By chief on 25/05/2011. 0 Comments

Oxford City Council v Bull [2011] EWCA Civ 609

In which the Court of Appeal had to consider whether the homeless applicant had made himself intentionally homeless and whether he was in priority need.

Mr Bull separated from his wife in June 2009 and left the home, where she was a secure tenant of the local authority, and moved into a room in a shared house. After a couple of months their three children moved in with him into the shared house. Mr Bull’s landlord then gave him notice to quit. Upon an an application to Oxford as homeless, he and the children were given temporary accommodation. Oxford subsequently issued … Read the full post

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

x’=γ(x-vt)*

By chief on 24/03/2011. 0 Comments

Without further ado, a hodge-podge of Equality and Human Rights updates.

Firstly, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Justice have finally launched the long expected Commission on a UK Bill of Rights. The Commission comprises a number of human rights and constitutional law experts and, er, some people who are presumably Cameron’s kind of people. The UK Human Rights Blog has a better analysis of the qualifications of the various members. The terms of reference, as expected, do not include the option of complete withdrawal from the Convention. What they do include is:

“The Commission will investigate the creation of a UK Bill of Rights … Read the full post

Posted in Various (non-housing). Tags: , .

You gotta have an opinion

By chief on 24/02/2011. 24 Comments

Hounslow v Powell; Leeds v Hall; Birmingham v Frisby [2011] UKSC 8

[This is probably a work in progress. There may be further additions and comments as people get a chance/have a brainwave. We've also ended up writing this as something of a tag team. Chief did most of it and starts us off.]

Sometime ago Dave opened the door to Tarantino references in relation to the vexed issue of Art.8 of the ECHR and possession proceedings. In his post on Zehentner v Austria he pointed out that, just as American hitmen consider that European fast food chains do certain things rather differently, so the appellate courts in England and … Read the full post

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