Tag Archive for 'private landlords'

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: , .

Way beyond the Naughty Step

By NL on 07/09/2009. 0 Comments

Some private landlords treat tenants as a nuisance. A sitting tenant can get in the way of a quick deal or reduce the value of a property on which the landlord is hoping to make a quick buck. Thanos Papalexis found himself in this situation when Charalambos Christodoulides, the resident caretaker of a derelict warehouse complex in Kensal Rise, refused to leave, potentially causing problems for a £2 million property deal. Mr Papalexis didn’t resort to illegal eviction, though. He had another solution for the problem presented by Mr Christodoulides.

He had him killed.

In fact, Mr Christoduoulides was tied to a chair, tortured, then strangled.

Mr Papalexis, of … Read the full post

Posted in Various (non-housing). Tags: , .

"Unauthorised tenancies": New Consultation

By Dave on 05/08/2009. 9 Comments

I have found myself unaccountably lethargic post-lunch, so when the Chief put us on to the new DCLoG consultation document on “unauthorised tenancies” I jumped at the opportunity to post on it.  It’s a beautifully produced document with lots of pictures, about a small but immensely important issue: a borrower, in breach of the mortgage conditions, creates a tenancy of the property; during the currency of that tenancy, the lender takes possession proceedings (or just possession, eg voluntarily); the lender, on standard principles of property law, is not bound by the tenancy; but what should happen to a borrower’s “tenants” who can otherwise be evicted on short notice?  Francis’ excellent … Read the full post

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

Foxtons' terms unfair

By Francis Davey on 13/07/2009. 2 Comments

In a long awaited decision the High Court has held in Office of Fair Trading v Foxtons [2009] EWHC 1691 (Ch) that some of the terms and conditions contained in Foxtons’ contract with landlords were unfair. While strictly speaking this decision is unrelated to housing law, concerning as it does the fairness of consumer contracts, it will have an impact on the housing sector and the decision itself is instructive in the application of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999.

The case was brought by the Office of Fair Trading who were claiming injunctive/declarative relief against Foxtons under their power to do so granted by regulation 12. … Read the full post

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

Tales from the pink campervan

By Dave on 19/06/2009. 0 Comments

The Tenants Services Authority (the new regulatory body for RSLs and, from April 2010, local authorities) has been holding a “national conversation” with tenants, touring round in a pink campervan amongst other engagement techniques. The outcome from that, and from broader regulatory conversations one suspects, is Building a New Regulatory Framework: A Discussion Paper. This is destined to be an important document when finalised – comments are due by 08 September 2009 and can be addressed to national.conversation@tsa.dsx.gov.uk – in part because of its (ir-)relevance when thinking about a jr (after Weaver) but, most significantly because of the regulatory standards it will lay down for tenants and landlords (now … Read the full post

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

Regulating renting proposals

By Dave on 13/05/2009. 5 Comments

I’m just in the process of marking what feels like thousands of coursework essays on proprietary estoppel and constructive trusts.  The thing that gets me – time for a rant – is that my very clever three As students can’t actually write a proper sentence, and split infinitives willy nilly.  It just winds me up.  So I turned to the much pre-publicised DCLoG response to the Rugg review of private renting which was published today. You can rely on DCLoG civil servants, or so I thought, but what lingers with me after reading it is that it could have been written by one of those very same students because it’s … Read the full post

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

Green Paper "within 10 days"

By Dave on 05/05/2009. 0 Comments

It’s the little things in life which get me excited and, as a bit of a policy nerd on the side, it looks like a Green Paper is to be expected within 10 days if The Times is to be believed. I’d heard on the grapevine that the GP had been canned because they couldn’t make up their minds what to do. My sources are usually good, but this time (again, if The Times is to be believed) ahem mistaken. According to The Times article, it’s going to suggest mandatory licensing for private landlords on the basis of the Rugg report (discussed by us here) (and the forgotten Jones … Read the full post

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