Author Archive for chief

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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: , , , , , .

Holding down sweet charity

By chief on 15/02/2011. 0 Comments

Zafar v Goddard, Bristol County Court, 13 December 2010

Word reaches us from the West Country of a not uninteresting case heard in Bristol County Court before Christmas.

Although we haven’t seen a transcript, we have been provide with an unapproved note of the judgment of DDJ Batstone.

The case came before the DDJ as a small claims case with a considerable history. Shortly after entering into an AST in 2008 Mr Goddard had left the property, with several months of the minimum period still to run. The first set of proceedings were then commenced by the landlord, Mrs Zafar, for unpaid rent up until the expiry of the … Read the full post

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

N.I.M.A.C.

By chief on 11/02/2011. 1 Comment

R (FZ) v LB Croydon [2011] EWCA Civ 59

-or-

Not In My Admin Court

We have written before about age assessments for those who might be under 18 – see most recently our post on R (CJ) v Cardiff CC and, prior to that, our post on the Supreme Court decision in R (A) v Croydon (which remains our only post to take its title from a Rolf Harris chart topper).

The long and short of Croydon is that an assessment that a young person is over 18 may be challenged by JR in the Admin Court.

In FZ the applicant sought to do exactly that, but was refused … Read the full post

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

Brave New World or Same Old Story

By chief on 04/11/2010. 28 Comments

Pinnock v Manchester City Council [2010] UKSC 45 (Supreme Court pdf & BAILII links)

Whenever a battle weary group of housing lawyers gets together, conversation inevitably turns (after the routine complaints about the less congenial DJs) to the thorny issue of which is the most important housing law case of all. While bizarre to the outsider, this ritual actually takes the form of a Mornington Crescent-style game, in which the aim is to get to Street v Mountford before somebody plays Puhlhofer and ruins the whole thing. The route to get there varies, although it will normally take in Awua, Pereira, Runa Begum, Din v Wandsworth… Read the full post

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

Equality Act 2010

By chief on 28/10/2010. 4 Comments

I’m going to level with you, dear reader(s), I’m a bit late with this one. In my defence, I point to the fact that the Act as printed is around 250 pages long, consisting of 218 sections and 28 schedules. The explanatory notes run to over 160 pages. There is then a further 650 pages in the associated codes of practice, as well as some non-statutory guidance. While this may not be the weightiest piece of legislation ever, it certainly is something of a Behemoth. Anyway, it’s not as if we hadn’t warned you that it was coming.

Large parts of it are now in force. While it is inevitably … Read the full post

Posted in Housing law - All and Various (non-housing). Tags: , , .
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