R (Faizi) v Brent LBC (Admin Court, 17.6.15) is only available as a Lawtel note and all may become clear once a transcript is obtained, but it is a very confusing little case. At the risk of overly simplifying , in England, homelessness is governed by Pt.7,...
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here
We were pretty scathing about the Conservative manifesto plans before the election and, yesterday, with the Queen's Speech, we got more detail of their plans for government. The Speech itself is available here, but what you actually need to read is the...
Promises and lies
With the manifestos all now published, I thought it might be interesting to look at what is being said about housing by the three main parties. I might do the others later, if I have time. Conservatives The highlight of housing policy seems to be a huge...
Selective Licensing Reforms
If the case-law is to be believed, local authorities have a hard enough time introducing selective licensing schemes as it is (see R (Peat) v Hyndburn and R (Regas) v Enfield)). Well, the government has published a draft SI designed to make it even harder....
Part 7 and capacity
R (MT) v Oxford CC, High Ct, (Lawtel note only as far as I can tell) is an interesting little case on capacity and homelessness Mr MT lacks capacity and is unable to manage his housing or financial affairs. He (or, I suspect, his father who was also his...
A new approach to improvements
Waaler v LB Hounslow [2015] UKUT 17 (LC) The background to this case is quite familiar to anyone who has been dealing with local authority leasehold service charge disputes over the last few years. Hounslow embarked upon a scheme of major works on an estate...
Squeezed Out of London
A friend of ours has asked us to help promote a potential documentary. What follows is a slightly edited version of the original email: Kash is a Hackney based production company that specialises in all forms of digital and short form content. We've been...
Leaving it to the last minute
No, not a post about the time-management skills of barristers, rather, some research that Z2K are putting together. As they say: Concern is mounting about councils, especially in London, delaying completion of homelessness reviews until right at the end of...
Getting around Tuitt
Anti-social behaviour cases are one of the staple cases for the young barrister. If acting for landlords (whether local authority or housing association), they're a great way to develop trial experience in a relatively low-risk environment. I say "low risk"...
Penal notices and warrants
Lawtel had a short note on a case called Bank of Ireland v Shah and another (QBD, 20.11.14) this week and I was wondering if anyone knew any more about it. According to the note, the Bank had a possession order against Mr Shah arising out of a mortgage. When...
Rooting out heresy
This is a post about the consultation provisions in ss.20, 20ZA, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, applicable in respect of service chargeable costs. If you're not interested in long leasehold law (which, looking at the site stats for most popular pages, is most...
A short note on leasehold costs
The UT(LC) has published an addendum to Daejan Properties Ltd v Griffin [2014] UKUT 206 (LC) (our note here). The substantive case was about historic neglect. In outline, the leaseholders had won in the FTT and the UT overturned the decision, The UT invited...