Author Archive for Francis Davey

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Fee hike for appeals from the LVT

By Francis Davey on 01/09/2010. 1 Comment

The ministry of justice has just published its response [PDF] to its consultation on fees for the Lands Tribunal — now of course the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber).

This is bad news if you are an appellant. The fee for seeking permission to appeal from the Lands Tribunal (i.e. if it was not given by the LVT) goes up from £40 to £200; the fee for lodging the appeal from £50 to £250 and while the hearing fee remains at 2% of the amount determined by the tribunal, the minimum and maximum fees rise from £100-£5,000 to £250-£15,000.

The reason given for this huge rise is that the the tribunals … Read the full post

Posted in Leasehold and shared ownership and Uncategorized.

What is a service charge?

By Francis Davey on 26/07/2010. 1 Comment

In two joined appeals to the Lands Chamber of the Upper Tribunal brought by Southern Housing Group Ltd and Family Housing Association (Wales) Ltd ([2010] UKUT 237 (LC) – not yet available via the tribunal’s website or on bailii), the tribunal considered whether, on construction of the relevant leases, a payment was a service charge within the meaning of s18 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. In both cases the LVT had held that the charge was a service charge (in favour of the tenant).

As readers will know, if a charge is a s18 service charge, then numerous provisions intended to protect tenants will bite, including the … Read the full post

Posted in Leasehold and shared ownership and Uncategorized.

Civil Procedure Rules: 51st update

By Francis Davey on 31/03/2010. 0 Comments

Spring is in the air and daffodils are blossoming which is usually a sign that an update to the civil procedure rules is in the offing. This year, we are doubly blessed. Parts of both the 51st and52nd updates will come into force over the next week. In this post I will, as usual, focus on changes that are most likely to affect housing practitioners.

Civil procedure watchers will already be aware of the 51st update, which gave brought into force provisions related to the Lugano Convention on enforcement of judgment are already in force in January this year, and February amendments to Part 52 concerning asylum appeals.

The … Read the full post

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: .

Total confusion from Willesden

By Francis Davey on 26/03/2010. 3 Comments

Chasewood Park Residents Ltd v Kim [2010] EWHC 579 (Ch) is a rent/service charges case that should serve as a useful object lesson: first for parties to remind them of the importance of precise pleading and the use of evidence; and second, I hope, to first instance judges as to the perils of abandoning the normal formalities of a trial.

Mr and Mrs Kim are tenants under a long lease of Chasewood. Chasewood, a company set up by the then residents’ association of which the Kims were members, had acquired the interest of the previous landlord in 2007.

The claims

Chasewood made two claims: for arrears of ground rent (£50 … Read the full post

Posted in Uncategorized.

I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!

By Francis Davey on 17/03/2010. 0 Comments

Joseph v Nettleton Road Housing Co-Operative Ltd [2010] EWCA Civ 228 is a decision that was decided on its facts, but since it is the first example of a claim for judicial review against a housing co-operative, I took an interest.

The facts are that Mr Joseph was a tenant of Nettleton Road Housing association. Nettleton Road Housing is a fully mutual housing co-operative. This means that its tenants can be neither secure, assured or (for those in residence for a long time) protected by the Rent Acts. The thinking being that a co-op, being run by its members, can be relied on to act fairly towards the generality of … Read the full post

Posted in Possession and Uncategorized. Tags: , , , .

Adverse Possession of a Highway II

By Francis Davey on 12/03/2010. 8 Comments

Last year we reported the decision R (Smith) v Land Registry [2009] EWHC 328 (Admin) in which the High Court held (amongst other things) that it was impossible to acquire land by adverse possession if that land was subject to a public highway. At the time I expressed my concern about the soundness of that conclusion and so it is rather pleasing to find that on appeal in R (Smith) v Land Registry [2010] EWCA Civ 200, the Court Appeal agree with me.

To recap: the claimant lives in a caravan on land to the North of road which is a part of the public highway, even though it is … Read the full post

Posted in Adverse possession and Uncategorized. Tags: , , .

Adverse possession of the river bed II

By Francis Davey on 04/02/2010. 17 Comments

Port of London Authority v Ashmore [2010] EWCA Civ 30 is a really odd decision by the Court of Appeal to the extent I had to read it through carefully twice to be sure I understood its effect. I am still not sure that I do.

You may remember that we reported on Mr Ashmore’s attempts to resists the Port of London Authority’s attempts to register their ownership of the bed of the River Thames on the ground that he had acquired title to it (well a part of it) by adverse possession where the judge at first instance found that he had established factual possession and an intention to … Read the full post

Posted in Adverse possession and Uncategorized.
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