Author Archives: David Smith

About David Smith

David is a solicitor specialising in landlord and tenant matters with Anthony Gold Solicitors. He particularly specialises in newer legislation and has written widely on the Housing Act 2004.

Let’s Not Move to Wales…

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…says the RLA. Personally I remain convinced that it is a lovely place and we should all move immediately. Why is the RLA less keen you might well ask. Well, the Welsh Government has today published the White Paper I response to the recent updated Renting Homes report produced by the Law Commission (which we wrote about here).

I am not going to follow the fad on television for repeating a mildly edited version of the previous post and then adding a small update at the end. I will only discuss here the new points, changes, and clarifications contained within the White Paper.

The Welsh Government is explicit in … Read the full post

How Limited is that Partnership?

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Salvesen and Riddell & Anor v. The Lord Advocate (Scotland) [2013] UKSC 22

It is not common for us to cover Scots Law, or Agricultural Law, here. However, both mores are to be broken in the face of an interesting convention decision from the Supreme Court.

Facts
You will have to bear with me as the facts are complex. I promise to keep it simple. Scottish Agricultural tenants have historically had very substantial security of tenure along with very powerful succession rights. Much the same situation has existed in England too at times. This is said to be good for land husbandry but is equally a reflection of post-war … Read the full post

A Further Deposit From the Court of Appeal

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Johnson & Ors v Old [2013] EWCA Civ 415

The Court of Appeal has been turning its mind to another of the odd questions that has sprung from the fertile litigious bosom of tenancy deposit protection. In this case the argument was over the question of rent payable in advance.

The Law and The Problem
In s212(8), Housing Act 2004 there is a definition of a deposit as follows:

“tenancy deposit”, in relation to a shorthold tenancy, means any money intended to be held (by the landlord or otherwise) as security for—
(a)the performance of any obligations of the tenant, or
(b)the discharge of any liability of his,
arising under

… Read the full post

How to Almost Regulate a Profession*

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It comes as something of a surprise to many people that there is no formal regulation of lettings agents or any form of structured consumer redress of protection scheme. Apparently, this is something that also bothers our elected representatives, or some of them…a little bit.

Some of the aforementioned elected representatives were seeking to use the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill which is currently in Parliamentary ping pong as a vehicle to do this. I would try to explain what this Bill is actually intended to do but in all honesty it is such a hodge-podge of items the list would extend well beyond your reasonable tolerance. Naturally, this sort … Read the full post

The Welsh Exodus Continues

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We have had an ongoing series of posts about moving to Wales and at NL towers we have discussed whether we should be seeking advertising from the Welsh tourism authority! Before that comment causes a deluge of emails from unlikely legal service providers seeking to advertise, that was a joke and we do not accept advertising.

More usefully (and returning to housing matters), the Law Commission has published an update to its 2006 report, Renting Homes. The original report recommended a wholesale reform of residential tenancies, in both the social and private sector. Unfortunately, the ideas contained in it received short shrift from central government and that might have … Read the full post

Tell me a storey

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London Borough of Islington v The Unite Group Plc [2013] EWHC 508 (Admin)

This is an interesting appeal in relation to the counting of storeys for HMO licensing purposes. It actually repeats an argument dealt with in an appeal in a criminal prosecution of a Mr Williams by Cotswold District Council from way back in 2008 although the result here was different (see “Recount Your Storeys” (2009) 12 JHL 1).

Basically, Unite owns a block of flats in Islington. The ground floor is a shop and the entrance to the block. The next four floors are flats, one flat per floor. The flats themselves are described as ‘cluster flats’. What … Read the full post

A Less Beneficial Interest

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Thompson v Hurst [2012] EWCA Civ 1752

This is a rather fact specific case which shows application of the principles of Stack v Dowden and Kernott v Jones. Our report on Kernott which covers the whole debate is here.

Background

H was the tenant of a local authority and had been since 1983. In 1985 T moved in with her. They did not marry but lived as a couple in the property. However, H remained the sole tenant of the property. In 2001 they bought the property under the right to buy scheme at a discount. The mortgage was in the name of H and she contributed the … Read the full post