Archive for the 'secure-tenancy' Category

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Water Under the Bridge

By David Smith on 02/11/2011. 4 Comments

Rochdale Borough Council v Dixon [2011] EWCA Civ 1173

Apologies for the late delivery of this case note which has been held up by a blizzard (of work rather than the kind afflicting the Eastern USA).

This case is somewhat complicated and involved so you will have to bear with me. In summary it consists of a defence to a possession claim which was based on non-payment of utility charges for the provision of water and sewerage.

Rochdale rented a property on a secure tenancy to Mr Dixon. He has resided there for more than 30 years. About 2 years ago he stopped paying a component of the charges levied … Read the full post

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

The assignment that wasn’t.

By NL on 25/09/2011. 3 Comments

Haringey LBC v Theobald. Clerkenwell and Shoreditch County Court 7 April 2011

Hat tip to September’s Legal Action ‘Recent Developments in Housing Law’ for this County Court case, and Daniel Fitzpatrick at Hodge Jones & Allen. Not a very significant case but a good illustration of the unintended consequences of the ad hoc arrangements sometimes made by Local Authority housing offices.

Mr Theobald’s father was given a tenancy of a 4 bedroom property by Haringey in 1962. In 1993, the father, suffering from dementia, moved permanently into a care home. Mr T and his brother applied to succeed to what was now a secure tenancy.

Haringey purported to transfer … Read the full post

Posted in FLW case note, Housing law - All, Possession, secure-tenancy and Succession. 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.

Wandsworth: headed for the naughty step?

By NL on 15/08/2011. 43 Comments

As is now pretty well known (and as I noted in the comments below this post) Wandsworth Council apparently made a bid to bring the first riot related possession proceedings. There are some things about Wandsworth’s behaviour that should be pointed out, but it also turns out that all might not be as it seems, leaving some questions for Wandsworth to answer.

Sadly, I’m going to have to link to some sources (including the Daily Mail) that identify the Wandsworth tenant and her son, who is the alleged rioter. I’m not going to use their names because, at least at present, I see no reason to do and quite … Read the full post

Posted in ASB, Housing law - All, Nuisance, Possession and secure-tenancy. Tags: , , , .

Evicting rioters: a brief note

By NL on 11/08/2011. 30 Comments

As a number of Councils and Housing Associations in London, Manchester, Salford and Birmingham say that they intend to evict tenants involved in rioting (and Grant Shapps has jumped in to back them, as has David Cameron), we’ve been requested to take a quick look at the relevant grounds of Housing Acts 1985 and 1988 and consider the ramifications.

The relevant grounds for an eviction would be Ground 2 of Schedule 2 of Housing Act 1985 (for secure, Council tenants) or Ground 14 Schedule 2 Housing Act 1988 (for assured, housing association tenants). These are pretty much identical, both read:

The tenant or a person residing in or

… Read the full post

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

And what kind of chocolate would you like your teapot?

By NL on 04/08/2011. 7 Comments

The DCLG has put out a consultation, announced by Grant Shapps (again), on proposals to bring in a mandatory ground for possession for Anti Social Behaviour. The closing date is 27 October 2011.

I had a look at Shapps’ initial announcement back in January. This time there is a bit more detail. Has it got any better or indeed more sensible?

Briefly, the proposal is to bring in a whole new process rather than to amended or add to existing grounds for possession in Housing Act 1985 or Housing Act 1988. The model is the Introductory Tenancy possession procedure.

The trigger is “serious housing-related behaviour which has already been … Read the full post

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