Nearly Legal
Housing Law News and Comment
Nearly Legal is a specialist housing law website for England (and occasionally Wales), run by solicitors and barristers practising in the field.
The site provides information, updates and discussion on housing and landlord & tenant law. Issues covered include homelessness, possession and forfeiture, unlawful eviction, disrepair and housing fitness, regulation and licensing, service and major works charges, right to manage and anything else that interests us. Contents include frequent case reports, updates on statute law, guides and key documents.
It is all free, but it is just our opinions, not legal advice. Please do not ask for advice on individual matters
Latest Posts
Varying a possession order from discretionary to mandatory ground
Poplar HARCA v Kerr. Central London County Court 26 July 2023. (Unreported. Judgment here.) This was a county court appeal to a circuit judge on the issue of whether a pre-existing suspended possession order, made on a discretionary ground, could...
Staying to make the parties try dispute resolution. A bit of a Tydfil
Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council (2023) EWCA Civ 1416 For transparency purposes, I acted for the Housing Law Practitioners Association on its intervention in this appeal. There was a great weight of expectations on this appeal,...
Section 21 and Gas Safety – post start of tenancy installations
Our grateful thanks to Noah Gifford of Pallant Chambers for the following note of a County Court judgment on the endlessly vexed issue of gas safety records and section 21 notices. (We've seen the judgment). This time, the issue is the requirements...
Saying you are broke isn’t enough to avoid a duty – suitable accommodation and resources
Imam, R (on the application of) v London Borough of Croydon (2023) UKSC 45 Full transparency - I acted for Crisis on an intervention in this case. This is the long awaited Supreme Court decision in Imam v Croydon on what conditions a court should...
Key Resources and information
Section 21 Notice validity flowchart – downloadable flowchart for checking whether Section 21 notices are validly served and effective.
How to Rent Guide Archive – What version of the Guide was current when? MHCLG don’t provide this information. We have dates and downloads for all versions.
Relationship Breakdown and Tenancies FAQ – An outline of the issues and options.
Bedroom Tax First Tier Tribunal – FTT Decisions archive. Upper Tribunal decisions can be found here.
About Nearly Legal – who we are, why we do this, and copyright on our materials. Also, our comments policy.
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All the bits that don’t make it to the blog.
Office view with distant geese.
“We asked Mrs Harber if the cases had been generated by ChatGPT. Mrs Harber said this was “possible”, but moved quickly on.” “She then asked how the Tribunal could be confident that the cases relied on by HMRC and included in the Authorities Bundle were genuine.” Oh dear.
Oh my heavens, another block being emptied for structural safety reasons. When I said this was a monthly occurrence now, it was meant to be a slight exaggeration @PeteApps
Staying to make the parties try dispute resolution. A bit of a Tydfil. A note/view on Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil from a housing law angle. It cost Merthyr a lot to give the Master of the Rolls what he was after but not get what they wanted.
Section 21 & Gas Safety - post start of tenancy installations. A first instance county court judgment that finds a Building Regulations Compliance Certificate for a new installation must be given to the tenants to validate a section 21 notice.