Tag Archive for 'possession claims'

You gotta have an opinion

By chief on 24/02/2011. 24 Comments

Hounslow v Powell; Leeds v Hall; Birmingham v Frisby [2011] UKSC 8

[This is probably a work in progress. There may be further additions and comments as people get a chance/have a brainwave. We've also ended up writing this as something of a tag team. Chief did most of it and starts us off.]

Sometime ago Dave opened the door to Tarantino references in relation to the vexed issue of Art.8 of the ECHR and possession proceedings. In his post on Zehentner v Austria he pointed out that, just as American hitmen consider that European fast food chains do certain things rather differently, so the appellate courts in England and … Read the full post

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

Carry me out feet first

By NL on 21/03/2009. 0 Comments

Second of the Ground 16 cases is London Borough of Brent v John Hodson [2009] EWHC 566 (QB) [Not on Bailli yet]. This was decided in January but only released in the last day or so. This is an appeal to the High Court on issues of availability of suitable accommodation for determining reasonableness of a possession order.

Mr Hodson was the successor tenant to his father. The property was a two bedroom flat and Mr Hodson, aged 63, now lived there alone. Mr Hodson had lived in the flat with his family between 1968 and the late 1980s and had moved back in in about 2000. Mr Hodson’s father … Read the full post

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

Appealing reasonableness decisions

By NL on 21/03/2009. 0 Comments

This is the first of two appeals on Ground 16 possession claims which came out today, both concerning whether it was reasonable to make a possession order. The second will be up later on.

Bracknell Forest Borough Council v Harry Green & Denise Green [2009] EWCA Civ 238 centred on the consideration of the availability of suitable accommodation as a factor in considering reasonableness. It is also, and sorry to spoil any dramatic tension, a textbook example of the Court of Appeal refusing to take issue with the lower court’s exercise of discretion where there is an imprecise legal standard unless the lower judge acted ‘under an error of principle’ … Read the full post

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

Possessions up, down and about the same

By NL on 22/02/2009. 0 Comments

The quarterly statistics for quarter 4 2008 on possession claims and orders are out [pdf]. Unsurprisingly, it is the mortgage repossession figures from the CML that got the headlines, being up significantly on 2007 – albeit by less than initially forecast by the CML. The mortgage possession claims issued actually dropped in quarter 4 2008 (although they had been at 38-39,000 for each of the previous three quarters of 2008, as opposed to 33-36,000 per quarter in 2007).

Meanwhile, landlord possessions are pretty static, or even slightly down. On the seasonally adjusted figures:

Mortgage possession
Claims brought
4.2007 – 36,444
4.2008 – 26,008

Order made
4.2007 – 25,555
4.2008 … Read the full post

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

Evictions and Proportionality

By chief on 09/02/2009. 1 Comment

We’re a bit late with this one, and it is arguably quite a biggie (hat tip to Niki Goss who first pointed it out, to me at least, in the comments here).

Anyway, Cosic v Croatia is a decision of the European Court of Human Rights that should be of interest as both Connors and McCann are referred to as the Court reaches its conclusion that a possession order was a disproportionate interference with the Applicant’s Art 8 rights, because she was not given the possibility of having the proportionality and reasonableness of it tested.  In the process the Court gives what might be construed as “guidance” to the … Read the full post

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

Pre-emptive possession orders

By NL on 26/08/2008. 4 Comments

Secretary of State for the Environment Food & Rural Affairs v Meier & Ors [2008] EWCA Civ 903 was a case concerning travellers encamped on Forestry Commission land. Some of the travellers had previously camped on a nearby patch of Forestry Commission land until a possession order was obtained. The Forestry Commission (or rather the Sec of State, the owner of the land) applied for:

  1. A possession order in respect of the patch of land occupied.
  2. A possession order for other nearby areas of Forestry Commission land that the travellers might move to.
  3. An injunction preventing the travellers from entering upon the land they currently occupied and the other nearby

    4. … Read the full post

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

ASB corner

By NL on 09/08/2008. 1 Comment

The August 2008 Legal Action contains a couple of cases concerning anti-social behaviour possession claims that weren’t recorded elsewhere.

Ealing LBC v Jama B5/08/0104 was a Court of Appeal matter. Mrs Jama was Ealing’s secure tenant of a two bed property. The household included her husband and six children. Ealing sought possession on allegations of ASB including noise nuisance, ten instances of flooding into the flat below, problems with rubbish disposal and urination in the lift. At the County Court, the judge accepted Mrs Jama had faced some harassment, but did not accept her evidence on the flooding. The judge accepted the evidence of a plumber that the flooding was … Read the full post

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