Tag Archive for 'legislation'

Equality Act 2010

By chief on 28/10/2010. 4 Comments

I’m going to level with you, dear reader(s), I’m a bit late with this one. In my defence, I point to the fact that the Act as printed is around 250 pages long, consisting of 218 sections and 28 schedules. The explanatory notes run to over 160 pages. There is then a further 650 pages in the associated codes of practice, as well as some non-statutory guidance. While this may not be the weightiest piece of legislation ever, it certainly is something of a Behemoth. Anyway, it’s not as if we hadn’t warned you that it was coming.

Large parts of it are now in force. While it is inevitably … Read the full post

Posted in Housing law - All and Various (non-housing). Tags: , , .

Election fever!

By NL on 20/04/2010. 8 Comments

So, while we wait for some more housing judgments (and they are coming. Austin v Southwark LBC is being heard in the Supreme Court tomorrow – Wednesday 21 April – and Thursday, for starters), I thought we might take a look at the main parties’ manifesto commitments on housing and housing law related issues.

The thing is, this won’t take long. Although there is an acknowledged affordable housing crisis going on, it isn’t something which makes a particular impact on the manifestos.

In no particular order…

The Tories give no commitment about spending on social housing, or any proposals for increasing social housing stock. Instead they promise to:

  • introduce a

… Read the full post

Posted in Housing law - All and Various (non-housing). Tags: , , .

John Healy saves the world*

By NL on 03/02/2010. 12 Comments

*Not really.

The current housing minister, who holds the current record for the number of times a housing minister’s name can be mentioned in a press release, has announced forthcoming legislation, in response to the Rugg report. More details here [link to PDF]. The announced headlines are as follows, then we’ll take a look at the substance.

Funding for a new housing hotline offering free help and advice for private tenants should things go wrong.

An online word-of-mouth directory of landlords similar to tripadviser or mumsnet. Consumer Focus is currently undertaking work to establish better ways for tenants to provide and access information about landlords’ track records.

A requirement

… Read the full post

Posted in Assured Shorthold tenancy, Housing law - All and Regulation and planning. Tags: , .

Equality Bill – request for help

By chief on 09/06/2009. 2 Comments

As we noted here, the Government’s new Equality Bill brings together various bits of anti-discrimination legislation and extends some of them.  One area that is extended is protection against age discrimination, which is now covered by Part 3, in respect of goods, facilities and services.  It is not however covered by Part 4 which deals with premises, including housing.

A number of people seem to be looking into this; the Conservatives have put down an amendment as part of the Committee stage, which would include age in Part 4.  We have been contacted by Age Concern and Help the Aged, who are looking for any evidence of harmful age discrimination … Read the full post

Posted in Assured Shorthold tenancy, assured-tenancy, Housing law - All and secure-tenancy. Tags: , , , .

The Equality Bill

By chief on 11/05/2009. 6 Comments

A new Equality Bill was a flagship manifesto commitment and it was finally published at the end of April.  The Bill receives its second reading in the House of Commons today.  While the Bill is primarily consolidating and tidying up existing law there are four important parts that may affect housing law:

  • Disability discrimination in the wake of Malcolm
  • Age discrimination
  • Socio-economic disadvantage duty
  • Extension of Public Sector Equality Duty

Taking them in the order that they appear in the Bill, clause 1 introduces a new duty on specified public authorities who must:

when making decisions of a strategic nature about how to exercise its functions, have due regard to

… Read the full post

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

Protection from repossession

By chief on 10/02/2009. 0 Comments

Andrew Dismore MP (he of Chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights fame) has introduced a ten minute rule bill entitled ‘Home Repossession (Protection) Bill’.  In his own words, the Bill will:

amend the Law of Property Act 1925 to require a mortgagee to obtain the court’s permission before exercising the power of sale, where the mortgaged land consists of or includes a dwelling-house

The aim is to overturn the High Court’s decision in Horsham Properties v Clark [2008] EWHC 2327 (Ch).  At the time J noted that Horsham would give rise to more questions than it answered.  Maybe this new Bill might provide some answers, although Dismore … Read the full post

Posted in Housing law - All and Mortgage possession. Tags: , , .
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