Archive for the 'Possession' Category

Housing and Human Rights Round-Up

By SJM on 14/05/2012. 4 Comments

Two interesting cases have been delivered by the ECHR in the last few weeks: Mago and others v Bosnia-Herzegovina and Yordanova and others v Bulgaria.

Mago

The applicants in Mago held tenancies for life of flats within Bosnia-Herzegovina (with the exception of Mrs Mago, whose husband was the tenant) and they were compelled for varying reasons to leave their  homes following the outbreak of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992. Security of these flats could be lost in a limited range of circumstances, including where the flat was left unoccupied for a continuous six month period or more. Once the tenants left, their properties were treated as abandoned by … Read the full post

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

Barking and Dagenham LBC v Bakare; too little too late

By FT on 14/05/2012. 0 Comments

Just a brief note on this. As yet no transcript. This is another example of a fairly robust antisocial behaviour decision being upheld on appeal and it reinforces the well established principle that an appellant who is essentially attacking the discretion of the Judge below will find no sympathy in the Court of Appeal.

The background was that a long standing secure tenant had lived in her flat with her three children. Her youngest son aged 19 had been involved in some offending including use and possession of cannabis and had some connection with firearms and ammunition found near the premises. B&D sought possession for both rent arrears and antisocial … Read the full post

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

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: , , .

Proportionality, Section 21 and starter tenancies

By NL on 22/04/2012. 2 Comments

Another RSL ‘starter tenancy’ and s.21 case, albeit one that marginally pre-dated West Kent HA v Haycraft, is The Riverside Group Limited – v – Sharon Thomas [2012] EWHC 169 (QB) 2 March 2012 (Manchester District Registry) [Not on Bailii. We've seen a transcript].

This will be a quick note, as the general principle has been established that proportionality defences are available for Housing Association ‘starter tenancies’, being assured shorthold tenancies, where possession is sought via section 21 notice. In addition, Ms Thomas was in person, and failed to appear, after her solicitors came off the record for lack of co-operation, so the extent of argument was limited.

Ms … Read the full post

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

The cost of criminalising trespass

By NL on 19/03/2012. 1 Comment

The Government’s proposal to criminalise trespass to residential property, contained in LASPO at clause 136, is due to be considered at report stage in the House of Lords tomorrow (Tuesday 20 March). The Government’s estimate of additional costs arising from the proposal is £25 million over 5 years.

SQUASH have obtained a report on the likely costs of the proposal, highlighting the shortcomings of the MoJ’s costings. The research takes into account knock on costs to other Departments and to Local Authorities. It outlines a range of scenarios that may result from the criminalisation and estimates the likely costs at between £316 million and £790 million.

The Guardian has further … Read the full post

Posted in FLW article, Housing law - All, Licences and occupiers and Possession. Tags: , , , .

Proportionality and bankruptcy: On fish and terrapins

By Dave on 15/03/2012. 2 Comments

One question (of the many) arising from the watershed that is represented in English and Welsh law by Pinnock is just how far it extends.  We hope to have a Court of Appeal decision on private landlords and the application of proportionality soonish.  But there is also a question on the relationship between this new jurisdiction and that of bankruptcy sale proceedings.  Prior to Pinnock, there was a discussion in some of the cases about the overlap between section 335A, Insolvency Act 1986, and Article 8 (the starting point for this discussion is Barca v Mears [2004] EWHC 2170 (Ch), but that case is rather hopeless; more recent discussion … Read the full post

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

Monk, ECHR and Article 8

By SJM on 13/03/2012. 2 Comments

Dixon v UK has now reached a conclusion in the ECHR with an Order made on 21/2/12 removing the case from the lists under Art 37 (1)(c) of the Convention.

This Order is the Court’s response to a unilateral declaration made by the UK government on 8/11/11 accepting that Mr Dixon had not had the benefit of a proportionality exercise in line with the principles set out in McCann, Pinnock and Powell and that the High Court’s obiter findings on proportionality were insufficient to guarantee Mr Dixon’s Article 8 rights. The UK therefore offered £3000 by way of just satisfaction, costs and expenses.

Despite Mr Dixon’s argument that had Art … Read the full post

Posted in Possession and Uncategorized.
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