Archive for the 'assured-tenancy' Category

The tenant is dead, long live the tenant

By Francis Davey on 11/05/2012. 23 Comments

Our attention was drawn to a decision in the Medway County Court, presumably because it considered a proportionality defence. I’m not sure there’s much to see there — one of the team said that he was not “remotely excited about it”.

But it caught my eye. To be fair, one cannot always tell from a short judgment of this kind exactly what happened, but it gives the impression that landlord and tenant law was, at best, misunderstood. So it seemed like a golden opportunity to set the record straight.

The defendant’s father and mother had lived in the property under an assured tenancy. Sadly, the father died. The mother succeeded … Read the full post

Posted in assured-tenancy, FLW case note, Housing law - All, Licences and occupiers, Possession and Succession. Tags: , , .

Annual rituals

By NL on 01/01/2012. 1 Comment

Happy new year to all who read, comment on or write for Nearly Legal!

This is usually a moment to take stock of the past year and look forward to the next, but I’m feeling far too lazy to do it properly. Luckily, the DCLG have made the task easier by shouting again that they propose to crack down on subletting. In what is rapidly becoming an annual tradition, Grant Shapps has announced plans to consult on proposals to make sub-letting a criminal offence. Rather oddly, Mr Shapps says:

For too long this country has turned a blind eye on the multi-billion pound problem of housing tenancy fraud

… Read the full post

Posted in assured-tenancy, Housing law - All, Possession, secure-tenancy and Various (non-housing).

No, that is your elbow

By NL on 29/10/2011. 3 Comments

In which we discover what happens when an RSL serves a notice confirming an assured tenancy after serving a s.21 notice on an assured shorthold tenant.

 Saxon Weald Homes Ltd v Chadwick [2011] EWCA Civ 1202

Mr Chadwick had been given an AST by Saxon Weald as a ‘probationary tenancy’ on 11 August 2008. The tenancy agreement stated that if no steps for possession had been taken within 12 months, including service of notice requiring possession or notice seeking possession, it would automatically become an assured periodic  tenancy at that time. Otherwise, it would remain a periodic AST. THe clause also stated “if the tenancy converts to a fully assured … Read the full post

Posted in Assured Shorthold tenancy, assured-tenancy, FLW case note, Housing law - All and Possession.

Delays, stays and funding limitations

By NL on 02/10/2011. 4 Comments

Windsor and District Housing Association v Hewitt [2011] EWCA Civ 1096 (Not on Bailii or elsewhere. We’ve seen a transcript). It is of interest not least for the Court of Appeal’s view of the meaning of the funding limitations on a Public Funding Certificate.

This was an application to the Court of Appeal for a stay of eviction pending determination of an application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. The original Court of Appeal decision – Windsor and District Housing Association v Hewitt (2011) CA (Civ Div) 19/05/2011 – we reported on here. The issue was whether Ms H had obtained a transfer to a two bed … Read the full post

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

Ain’t no Cicero

By NL on 19/08/2011. 8 Comments

This, the second post on the riot related possession proposals (the first is here), looks at an article published on the ConservativeHome website by Jake Berry MP, Parliamentary Private Secretary to Grant Shapps, and Tory MP for the gritty urban constituency of Rossendale and Darwen in Lancashire.

OK, that last bit may be a bit of a fib, but the roads, lanes and bridle ways of Rossendale and Darwen are, it would seem, not without tensions.

“The community in Rossendale and Darwen is strong, with the glue of fantastic schools, strong churches, youth clubs and community groups binding us together. Even with our strong society, we have to

… Read the full post

Posted in ASB, assured-tenancy, Housing law - All, Possession, secure-tenancy and Various (non-housing).

Losing localism

By NL on 18/08/2011. 10 Comments

Or, more accurately ‘locality’. Sorry if that got anyone excited over nothing.

As has been widely announced, the DCLG consultation on introducing a mandatory ground for possession on grounds of conviction for a housing related ASB offence etc, previously discussed here, has been amended to include a question on amending Ground 2 of Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1985 and Ground 14 of Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988 to remove the locality condition for certain offences. The amended consultation paper is here. The closing date is 7 November 2011

This is an exercise in two parts. In this, the first, I’ll outline and discuss the … Read the full post

Posted in ASB, assured-tenancy, FLW article, Housing law - All, Possession and secure-tenancy.

Starter tenancy: proportionality ‘just about arguable’

By NL on 16/08/2011. 18 Comments

West Kent Housing Association v Haycraft [2011] EWCA Civ 992 (Not on Bailii. We’ve seen a transcript)

This was a renewed application for permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal on a second (or perhaps first- see below) appeal from the granting of a possession order. The ground of appeal was that the appellant tenant had a defence of proportionality which had not been considered by the District Judge and not considered adequately by the Circuit Judge in dismissing the first appeal.

Mr H had a starter tenancy (or AST) from West Kent Housing Association, an RSL/PRPSH. In January 2010, the RSL had a meeting, described as a re-hearing … Read the full post

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