Tag Archive for 'human-rights'

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: , , .

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: , , .

Any answers?

By chief on 28/04/2012. 0 Comments

The April edition of Legal Action brings news that Hurst v UK has settled. As will be seen from the ECtHR’s Statement of Facts and Questions to the Parties Hurst involved a secure tenant who murdered a neighbour, the applicant’s son, during the course of possession proceedings. Ms Hurst brought proceedings in the domestic courts, which reached their conclusion in R (Hurst) v London Northern District Coroner [2007] UKHL 13; [2007] 2 AC 189. Those proceedings were concerned with the duties of a coroner, particularly where the death had occurred before the Human Rights Act 1998 had come into force.

Ms Hurst had also commenced civil proceedings against the police … Read the full post

Posted in Housing law - All. Tags: , .

Occupy LSX update

By NL on 19/01/2012. 0 Comments

As you may well have seen in the news, the Corporation of London was granted a possession order and injunction against the tents and camp of Occupy LSX in the churchyard area outside St Paul’s Cathedral by the High Court on Wednesday 18 January. The judgment is on the Judiciary website here.

We’ll have a note on the judgment shortly, but the main finding was that, given the Corporation’s right to possession, the interference with the protestors’ Article 10 and 11 rights was justified and proportionate in view of the need to protect the rights and freedoms of others, including public passers-by, St Paul’s Cathedral, church-goers and businesses in … Read the full post

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

Money can’t buy you everything

By NL on 18/12/2011. 13 Comments

Sun Street Properties Ltd v Persons Unknown [2011] EWHC (Ch), [2011] All ER (D) 72 (Dec) [no transcript available yet]

Or, what the hell is going on about Occupy/Bank of Ideas and the property owned by Union Bank of Switzerland. As you probably noticed, on 18 November 2011, an empty property in the City was occupied by a group connected with the OccupyLSX camp outside St Paul’s. The property was ultimately owned by the UBS, the ones who allegedly just lost some $2.3 billion through a rogue trader.

At the time, I predicted that UBS (or rather their subsidiary, Sun Street Properties Ltd) would go for an interim possession order … Read the full post

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

Morris dancing

By NL on 28/09/2011. 8 Comments

Bah v The United Kingdom – 56328/07 [2011] ECHR 1448

This is a decision of the European Court of Human Rights on the regulations for eligibility for housing support, after the declaration of incompatibility in Westminster v Morris [2005] EWCA Civ 1184.

It is a very significant case, not least because it has a direct bearing on the ‘corrective’ amendment that the Government made 4 years later in response to Morris via Schedule 15 Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 and the possibilities of any challenge to that Schedule. It also has broader implications for differential conditions for access to social welfare benefits in general, where a child subject to immigration … Read the full post

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

That’s not the way to do it

By chief on 12/08/2011. 0 Comments

Zolotareva v Russia (App. No. 15003/04)

With a hat-tip to the Garden Court bulletin, here is a decision of the European Court of Human Rights on the enforcement of an eviction. Ms Zolotareva lived in a municipally owned flat with her son, ex-daughter-in-law and grandchild. She thought that could no longer all live together (I refer you to the “ex” in the last sentence and possibly also the “in-law”) and commenced proceedings for the eviction of her son’s ex-wife. She in turn counter-claimed, asking the court to order that they all get rehoused elsewhere.

The court sided with the ex-wife and ordered not only that she and her … Read the full post

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